Game of Thrones

the last episodes were to fast i like a slow tv show

Love, love, love this show! I've never been a fan of the fantasy genre at all, but this series got me hooked and since then I've devoured the first two books in the series in a matter of days. Oddly enough, I started the series with episode 9, so I saw the big gut-wrenching surprise before I ever got into the series. Though, I don't think it really ruined anything. In the books they heavily foreshadow his death, so it's not a huge surprise if you have been paying attention to all the subtext early on. For those that haven't read the books, the main differences between the book and the TV show are:

They gloss over all of the major battle scenes on the TV show - This is my only major gripe about the show. In the book they go into much more detail about the fighting, and Tyrion is a badass who kills a bunch of people in battle instead of getting knocked out like a little bitch earlier on. But I understand why they did it. A TV show just doesn't have the kind of budget for battles on the epic scale that they are in the book. I hope they have more money for the second season because the scale of things get way more grandiose, and it would be a shame if they continued to just gloss over all of the war stuff. You really get much more of a sense of the vast, epic scale of westeros, and all of the lords involved from the books.

Many characters are described as much uglier in the book (Tyrion, Arya, Knights Watch, etc.), and there is a lot less sex. The character "Rose", the redhead whore, isn't even in the book, and they don't really get into Theon's sexual escapades until the second book. Also, Renly's gaysex scene is completely fabricated for the TV show, as well as some of the conversations between Cersie and the King, Cersie and Catelyn, etc. They obviously did it because they couldn't include all of the extra narrative background information, and it works well for the most part.

They also changed a few scenes around in minor ways and combined some scenes together (opening white walkers confrontation, Ned's injury, Robb's victory etc.), but nothing that affects the plot all that much. The only major thing I noticed they left out was Sansa's involvement in Eddard's betrayal, but I figure they might get into that later on. The rest of the stuff they skipped is just a lot of history and backstory which I hope they are going to get more into as the story goes along.

Overall, it's pretty damn faithful to the books as far as adaptions go. They did an impressive job with this series.

I can't wait for next season. Everything in season one was just a big build up for everything that will go down in season 2, and then season 2 is just another buildup for all the shit that's going to happen in season 3. It just keeps getting more awesome. I hear the fourth book is kind of lame though, since its basically just all of the aftermath of all the carnage that happens in the first 3 books. Can't fucking wait!

  On 7/12/2011 at 2:39 AM, MrSparkle666 said:

, and Tyrion is a badass who kills a bunch of people in battle instead of getting knocked out like a little bitch earlier on.

Yeah, i thought that they wrote it that way so that they could avoid filming a battle scene. Lol to be so cynically right.

well lets hope theyre saving the battles for season 2 and lets also hope they dont suck

  On 7/12/2011 at 4:54 AM, delet... said:

  On 7/12/2011 at 2:39 AM, MrSparkle666 said:

, and Tyrion is a badass who kills a bunch of people in battle instead of getting knocked out like a little bitch earlier on.

 

Yeah, i thought that they wrote it that way so that they could avoid filming a battle scene. Lol to be so cynically right.

Tyrion is a badass? I'm sure the prime reason they did it was to save money, but buying Tyrion as a badass is a bit hard to swallow when you actually get to look at the guy off the printed page. I notice they also seem to avoid showing him running and walking, as he looks absolutely ridiculous when he's doing that. As much as I like the actor and character, there's no way I could buy him being good in combat. I even found it hard to swallow when he bashed dude's face in with a shield - I just can't imagine those wee arms and stubby fingers have much strength at all to wield anything...

dont listen to them

where there dragons in the book? i hope they dont have dragons in the 2nd show

duh sup obviously theres gonna be dragons ya friggin dengus

i just dont like how dragons are real now

okay then

dragon now real that is what it does breathe fire burn castle insurance without

i admit I'm not keen on the dragons or black magic either. But according to the author he likes minimal fantasy elements too, so I don't worry they will overwhelm the narrative.

Like you, I liked the way dragons were referred to as being driven to the extinction. Gave the series a nice gloomy "man in an era of decline" vibe...

enjoy how dead living breathe in lung for more

?how cool

  On 7/12/2011 at 5:31 AM, lumpenprol said:

  On 7/12/2011 at 4:54 AM, delet... said:

  On 7/12/2011 at 2:39 AM, MrSparkle666 said:

, and Tyrion is a badass who kills a bunch of people in battle instead of getting knocked out like a little bitch earlier on.

 

Yeah, i thought that they wrote it that way so that they could avoid filming a battle scene. Lol to be so cynically right.

 

Tyrion is a badass? I'm sure the prime reason they did it was to save money, but buying Tyrion as a badass is a bit hard to swallow when you actually get to look at the guy off the printed page. I notice they also seem to avoid showing him running and walking, as he looks absolutely ridiculous when he's doing that. As much as I like the actor and character, there's no way I could buy him being good in combat. I even found it hard to swallow when he bashed dude's face in with a shield - I just can't imagine those wee arms and stubby fingers have much strength at all to wield anything...

Yeah, they make him out to be a bit more of a comical ladies man in the show. In the book his character is similar, but more sharp witted and less comical. He's also more ugly an grotesque looking. They do make him out to be pretty awkward in the book too. It's not like he's some bloodthirsty warrior or anything. He definitely is not one to go into combat if he can avoid it, but they do hint at the fact that he has battle training due to his upbringing. In the book he carries a battle axe.

To illustrate the difference between his character in the book vs the show, take for example the scene where they get abducted by the mountain tribes after leaving The Vale of Arryn. In the show he's all goofing of like he doesn't give a fuck, "la la la" trotting down the road, and oops! Him and Bronn get ambushed by a mountain tribe. Oh no! what to do?!

First of all, in the book Catelyn's group had much more trouble than one run in with a gang on the way into the Vale. They were continuously attacked by mountain tribes and barely made it into the Vale alive. Most of their group was killed off on the way. So, when they kick Tyrian and Bronn out of the Vale onto the high road, they tell you flat out it's basically a death sentence. Bronn wants to try to make a run for it, but Tyrian knows they wont make it, so as soon as they leave the Vale he sets up camp, and starts a fire making all kind of racket in order to attract the tribes to him. He intentionally tries to get captured, because he figures he might as well deal with the problem right away while he has the upper hand rather than wait to get captured on the road. His plan was to win them over all along.

So, you can see how he's much more cunning in the book, and less comical. Oddly, probably 90% of his dialog is the same, but they just twist certain things around, and change a line here and there to make him into a slightly different character.

  On 7/12/2011 at 7:13 AM, lumpenprol said:

i admit I'm not keen on the dragons or black magic either. But according to the author he likes minimal fantasy elements too, so I don't worry they will overwhelm the narrative.

 

Like you, I liked the way dragons were referred to as being driven to the extinction. Gave the series a nice gloomy "man in an era of decline" vibe...

I don't want to spoil anything, but they do start to bring in more magical/sorcery/mystical elements in the second book. It's part of the arc of the story. They hint at it with the whole reemergence of the white walkers and then the dragons in the first book. Still, I like that he seems to keep those elements more low key than most fantasy writers.

  On 7/12/2011 at 8:07 AM, MrSparkle666 said:

  On 7/12/2011 at 5:31 AM, lumpenprol said:

  On 7/12/2011 at 4:54 AM, delet... said:

  On 7/12/2011 at 2:39 AM, MrSparkle666 said:

, and Tyrion is a badass who kills a bunch of people in battle instead of getting knocked out like a little bitch earlier on.

 

Yeah, i thought that they wrote it that way so that they could avoid filming a battle scene. Lol to be so cynically right.

 

Tyrion is a badass? I'm sure the prime reason they did it was to save money, but buying Tyrion as a badass is a bit hard to swallow when you actually get to look at the guy off the printed page. I notice they also seem to avoid showing him running and walking, as he looks absolutely ridiculous when he's doing that. As much as I like the actor and character, there's no way I could buy him being good in combat. I even found it hard to swallow when he bashed dude's face in with a shield - I just can't imagine those wee arms and stubby fingers have much strength at all to wield anything...

 

Yeah, they make him out to be a bit more of a comical ladies man in the show. In the book his character is similar, but more sharp witted and less comical. He's also more ugly an grotesque looking. They do make him out to be pretty awkward in the book too. It's not like he's some bloodthirsty warrior or anything. He definitely is not one to go into combat if he can avoid it, but they do hint at the fact that he has battle training due to his upbringing. In the book he carries a battle axe.

 

To illustrate the difference between his character in the book vs the show, take for example the scene where they get abducted by the mountain tribes after leaving The Vale of Arryn. In the show he's all goofing of like he doesn't give a fuck, "la la la" trotting down the road, and oops! Him and Bronn get ambushed by a mountain tribe. Oh no! what to do?!

 

First of all, in the book Catelyn's group had much more trouble than one run in with a gang on the way into the Vale. They were continuously attacked by mountain tribes and barely made it into the Vale alive. Most of their group was killed off on the way. So, when they kick Tyrian and Bronn out of the Vale onto the high road, they tell you flat out it's basically a death sentence. Bronn wants to try to make a run for it, but Tyrian knows they wont make it, so as soon as they leave the Vale he sets up camp, and starts a fire making all kind of racket in order to attract the tribes to him. He intentionally tries to get captured, because he figures he might as well deal with the problem right away while he has the upper hand rather than wait to get captured on the road. His plan was to win them over all along.

 

So, you can see how he's much more cunning in the book, and less comical. Oddly, probably 90% of his dialog is the same, but they just twist certain things around, and change a line here and there to make him into a slightly different character.

That would have been much better. One of my problems with the series is that it seems too rushed and condensed, sup mentioned that and I agree. I think it's probably too much to cram an entire book into a season, I bet they could do a half book a season and it would actually be better, giving scenes more breathing room, and characters more time to develop...

?are not dragon old organic cool

:sup:

wtf u doing blanket

  On 7/12/2011 at 8:43 AM, lumpenprol said:

 

That would have been much better. One of my problems with the series is that it seems too rushed and condensed, sup mentioned that and I agree. I think it's probably too much to cram an entire book into a season, I bet they could do a half book a season and it would actually be better, giving scenes more breathing room, and characters more time to develop...

Yeah, I agree. They really rushed the last few episodes and skipped over a lot of details about the start of the war. I think it would have been a lot more appropriate to make it a full season of 14 or 15 episodes. You can tell they started rushing stuff as they approached their ten episode limit. I don't know how they are going to transition into the next season, becasue a lot of the details about whats going on with the war starts to get important for the plot development in the second book. It would be difficult to go back and fill in a lot of stuff at this point, since they greatly simplified those parts of the story already.

Still, I think they did a great adaptation with what they had available. Hopefully next season they will get a full 15 episodes and a bigger budget now that the show is a hit.

Tyrion was hardly a "bad ass". He was forced in to a situation by his father, and dealt with it. I mean, yeah.. he did kill some dudes, but he hardly walks in the story as a battle axe carrying whoop ass stone cold Steve Austin mother fucker. Brain over brawn and all that.

BUT, I am curious to see how they handle him in Season 2. Things get a lot more interesting in his story line, and I hope they stay true to it. He sort of becomes a kind of "bad ass", but i won't elaborate any more.

I loved the television series, I assume the books are worth diving into but damn they are HUGE. I work in a bookshop and the latest arrived today, clearly it is quite an undertaking to read them all. I still regret reading Lord of the Rings and wouldn't wish to make a similar error.

a dance with dragons has been shipped according to amazon, shame i'm in the middle of re-reading the whole series, currently about 250 pages into clash of kings. my ma can enjoy it while i catch up.

  On 7/12/2011 at 3:13 PM, thanks robert moses said:

Tyrion was hardly a "bad ass". He was forced in to a situation by his father, and dealt with it. I mean, yeah.. he did kill some dudes, but he hardly walks in the story as a battle axe carrying whoop ass stone cold Steve Austin mother fucker. Brain over brawn and all that.

 

BUT, I am curious to see how they handle him in Season 2. Things get a lot more interesting in his story line, and I hope they stay true to it. He sort of becomes a kind of "bad ass", but i won't elaborate any more.

im guessing he fucks shit up as hand of the king , i bet he doesnt take joffreys shit

  On 7/12/2011 at 7:15 PM, tec said:

I loved the television series, I assume the books are worth diving into but damn they are HUGE. I work in a bookshop and the latest arrived today, clearly it is quite an undertaking to read them all. I still regret reading Lord of the Rings and wouldn't wish to make a similar error.

LOL why do you regret reading lotr

  On 7/12/2011 at 7:15 PM, tec said:

I loved the television series, I assume the books are worth diving into but damn they are HUGE. I work in a bookshop and the latest arrived today, clearly it is quite an undertaking to read them all. I still regret reading Lord of the Rings and wouldn't wish to make a similar error.

way better than lotr, totally worth it

lotr is the best