Yes, I finished the first season yesterday. It's been a while since I've had a show where I just flat wanted to know what happened next like I do with this show.
Thoughts in no particular order:
* Ned Stark is dead. This is the thing I'd been spoiled for, but even without the spoiler I don't think it'd have come as a shock. He was an honorable man but a pretty poor statesman, and this world does not reward that combination of traits.
* Forget what I said about being unmerciful to Joffrey. NO MERCY.
* Oh, if only Sansa had actually pushed him off that walkway - what a different story it would be from here. I suppose the younger brother, I forget his name, would get the crown, but Cersei would find him much more manageable than Joffrey is turning out to be.
* I found the whole story between Danaerys and the priestess woman to be fascinating. Of course we feel for Danaerys, but OTOH in any other story (and perhaps this one, too), we'd cheer the priestess on. My gosh, though, what becomes of Drogo is horrible. Somehow knowing it's a magical catatonia feels even more horrible than if he were just, like, on life support. Eep.
* Elsewhere, I really like the hillwoman who's now enslaved up at Winterfell. Does she even have a name? But I like her a lot, and I like her friendship with Bran.
* Speaking of Bran, it's nice that his continued memory problems have some plot relevance. Once Ned figured out that Joffrey was Jaime's son, I wasn't really sure what the point was of Bran knowing, too, but now that Ned's gone, that's a rabbit that needs to pulled out of the hat again.
* So, moral of this story: incest destroys kingdoms, y/y? (Technically, it's more along the lines of "Habitually cheating on the king for years destroys kingdoms," but you know, whichever.)
* In addition to Iain Glen, I've spotted another Downton Abbey alum: Molesly is an attendant person at King's Landing.
* People are remarkably verbal during sex scenes. It can't be very good sex, or you wouldn't think they'd have time to deliver all this exposition. And then afterwards the ladies stand around naked as if drafts do not exist in this universe while the men continue to exposit. (It's not even good exposition most of the time. It's really quite dull 'Let me explain how I came to me the miserable excuse for a man that I am' exposition.)
Generally, the scenes that I am automatically invested in are:
* Anything to do with the Wall.
* Anything with Tyrion or Arya.
* Most things with Varys, oddly enough. Or Littlefinger. (Except, OMG, the girl-on-girl porn exposition scene of DOOOOOOM.)
No doubt I have other thoughts out of those seven episodes, but I'm having trouble thinking what they are off-hand. So, in closing:
DRAGONS.
Original entry posted at Dreamwidth. Feel free to reply here or there. (
DW replies)
Thoughts in no particular order:
* Ned Stark is dead. This is the thing I'd been spoiled for, but even without the spoiler I don't think it'd have come as a shock. He was an honorable man but a pretty poor statesman, and this world does not reward that combination of traits.
* Forget what I said about being unmerciful to Joffrey. NO MERCY.
* Oh, if only Sansa had actually pushed him off that walkway - what a different story it would be from here. I suppose the younger brother, I forget his name, would get the crown, but Cersei would find him much more manageable than Joffrey is turning out to be.
* I found the whole story between Danaerys and the priestess woman to be fascinating. Of course we feel for Danaerys, but OTOH in any other story (and perhaps this one, too), we'd cheer the priestess on. My gosh, though, what becomes of Drogo is horrible. Somehow knowing it's a magical catatonia feels even more horrible than if he were just, like, on life support. Eep.
* Elsewhere, I really like the hillwoman who's now enslaved up at Winterfell. Does she even have a name? But I like her a lot, and I like her friendship with Bran.
* Speaking of Bran, it's nice that his continued memory problems have some plot relevance. Once Ned figured out that Joffrey was Jaime's son, I wasn't really sure what the point was of Bran knowing, too, but now that Ned's gone, that's a rabbit that needs to pulled out of the hat again.
* So, moral of this story: incest destroys kingdoms, y/y? (Technically, it's more along the lines of "Habitually cheating on the king for years destroys kingdoms," but you know, whichever.)
* In addition to Iain Glen, I've spotted another Downton Abbey alum: Molesly is an attendant person at King's Landing.
* People are remarkably verbal during sex scenes. It can't be very good sex, or you wouldn't think they'd have time to deliver all this exposition. And then afterwards the ladies stand around naked as if drafts do not exist in this universe while the men continue to exposit. (It's not even good exposition most of the time. It's really quite dull 'Let me explain how I came to me the miserable excuse for a man that I am' exposition.)
Generally, the scenes that I am automatically invested in are:
* Anything to do with the Wall.
* Anything with Tyrion or Arya.
* Most things with Varys, oddly enough. Or Littlefinger. (Except, OMG, the girl-on-girl porn exposition scene of DOOOOOOM.)
No doubt I have other thoughts out of those seven episodes, but I'm having trouble thinking what they are off-hand. So, in closing:
DRAGONS.
Original entry posted at Dreamwidth. Feel free to reply here or there. (
Comments
I also think that the priestess had a point, even if she basically hurts Dany, she wasn't wrong about what she said. The sad circle of revenge and pain.
I couldn't bear the books, I don't think, and I shan't try. As you say, at least here I have excellent acting (and also pretty scenery) to distract me from the long droney exposition by men to naked women.
To be fair, the TV character
There's a lot less explicit sex in the books.
:P I kind of expected there must be, because the degree of explicitness we see on screen is a lot higher than I'd expect for a book of this genre.
Tyrion is always the best, though.
It's really hard to justify all the sexposition scenes, so I've basically decided not to try. They are what they are, and it's up to any viewer if the ridiculous fanservice is enough to offset the character drama and twisted fantasy clichés. It's all basically this. I'd like to be able to dismiss the whole series, but then there's Tyrion, and Arya, and Daenerys, and the utter cold realism of a man like Ned Stark being reduced to a useful idiot to be sacrificed...
That skit is, yes, quite remarkably accurate.
the utter cold realism of a man like Ned Stark being reduced to a useful idiot to be sacrificed...
Indeed. Where in every other fantasy, he'd be the hero saving the kingdom by brute honor alone.
I kind of do cheer Mirri Maz Duur (the priestess) on. Well, I mean, it's horrible for Drogo, but she very definitely has a point, and her "I should be grateful to you, reall?" scene with Dany was possibly my favorite in s1.
The hillwoman (Wildling) captive at Winterfell is named Osha (though I can't remember how clear the show makes this, heh).
The sexposition (especially the Littlefinger monologue-with-girl-on-girl-porn) is easily the least favorite thing about the show from like every book fan I know. Just so ridiculous and unnecessary...
It's a great scene, where it's easy to be totally sympathetic to both sides at once.
Osha! Yes, I like Osha a lot. A lot of this is down to the actress, I think.
This is something George R.R. Martin and ASOIAF excels at in general. The show's been more hit-or-miss for me in this regard, but in that scene it really nailed that effect, yeah.
There were a lot of "it's Tonks!" jokes/reactions when the actress was cast as Osha -- it's still a little weird to me, I must say, though I like her in the role. (She's quite different than I imagined the book character to be -- younger, for one -- but not in a way tha tinterferes with my enjoyment.)
Forget what I said about being unmerciful to Joffrey. NO MERCY.
Yeah, he's horrible. Really, truly horrible. Becoming king just makes it worse because now he has absolute power.
My gosh, though, what becomes of Drogo is horrible.
Pretty much. You know, and maybe I'm the only one who thinks this, but to me, Drogo was never much of a character in his own right? He always seemed like an extension of Daenerys, or more particularly, Daenerys' story. He was treated with the two-dimensionalness that the generic female love interest of the hero often is in stories. He's warrior, and... what? And he's is basically fridged to serve her story. She rises out of the ashes of his death.
I'm not the least surprised. Ned was honorable, yes, but otherwise he was quite ill-suited to being the Hand. Whereas Tyrion is very clever and very observant and holds few enough illusions to see him clearly through the morass of capital politics.
Drogo was never much of a character in his own right? He always seemed like an extension of Daenerys, or more particularly, Daenerys' story.
It's true. I wondered why he chose to marry her at all. Did the thought of a foreignborn princess appeal? Had he heard about her pretty white hair? Because their marriage isn't about him at all.
Granted, I'd be a little bit more gleeful about a guy getting fridged to serve a girl's story if he weren't also the most significant character of color in the show. :P
DRAGONS.
Same.
Danaerys in season 1 is a fascinating story about empowerment, but you really do feel for the witch because she has such a valid point. It's about Dany being a protagonist with a protagonist's privilege, so we side with her. She's the character we've spent all this time relating to.
The wildling who takes up with Bran is named Osha. She's familiar because she played Tonks in the Harry Potter movies. She's pretty cool in both.
Incest is bad unless its between characters on CW shows.
I just watched season 2 with my parents, and they'd get all stuffy when the exposition whore was around. I just shrug and say "It's HBO. They'd get cancelled if they didn't have enough sex and violence."
The Wall is a great story all the way through the books, and Sam is one of my favorite characters. Varys is another favorite because he's so perfectly constructed and exactly what I imagined when I first read the books.
Sam is a sweetie. And I do like Varys quite a lot. I mean, not in the "You are an excellent person and an honorable man" sort of way, but in the "I can't wait to see what you do next" sort of way. And he's a survivor, which tends to be a character trait I appreciate. Ditto Littlefinger.
NO MERCY EVER.
I found the whole story between Danaerys and the priestess woman to be fascinating. Of course we feel for Danaerys, but OTOH in any other story (and perhaps this one, too), we'd cheer the priestess on.
Absolutely. The inclusion of Mirri in the story is EXCELLENT and really calls into question protagonist privilege.
It can't be very good sex, or you wouldn't think they'd have time to deliver all this exposition. And then afterwards the ladies stand around naked as if drafts do not exist in this universe while the men continue to exposit. (It's not even good exposition most of the time. It's really quite dull 'Let me explain how I came to me the miserable excuse for a man that I am' exposition.)
HAHAHA AMEN.