Rogue30 said:

Why is that so sad. She's got intelligence, and is very good with physical acting. Imagine what she can do with those once she's grown up. (Plus if she develops like other dancers tend to do... she'll be quite graceful imagine Summer Glau with less forehead.)

We also need to keep in mind that two years pass between the start of the series and the middle/end of the third book. So having the characters age is expected.

Also, how did people feel when Cersei talked about the first child she lost? At first I was like "WTF? Cersei and Robert never had any children!" But as the tale progressed and it became obvious that she was talking about the death of the only child Robert gave her (and, I belive, in the books she had this child aborted as opposed to actually giving birth) it became one of those moments where the TV show used the medium to describe how vile the woman is perfectly. Up until this point, she was just brother-love queen *****; after that comment we learned just how deep her contempt of Robert goes, to murder the only child she and him have together.

Stag Lord. . . you win 10 internetz for the West Wing reference

BTW Peter Dinklage totally reminds me of this old version of Tyrion from 5KE:

http://www.agotcards.org/card/v/3691

Stag Lord said:

Things are good. I'm unemployed but otherwise I can't complain.

Ya, I'm really excited about to show so I thought I'd stop by to see how things are going. With all the new cards and mechanics I can't really say I know the game as well as I used to but looking at the discussions it seems that a lot of it is recognizeable at least. I've been playing from time to time with my old cards but I haven't bought anything new since there's no one that is really interested in investing into the game again but it's fun to play with the old cards.

Karazax said:

Here is his recap/review of episode 2. This time he catches a lot more of the details correctly and has a much better grasp of the names:

Still a pretty entertaining listen and it is good to see how much a non-reader is catching after one viewing.

ingsve said:

Yeah -the Hosues play prtety much teh wya they did at the end of CCG. The LCG game isn't as deep, nuanced or challenging as CCG was but tis still a lot of fun and I spend way too mcuh time thinking about and playing it. Hope you stick around.

Karazax said:

I think this is really excellent and he is to be commended. I like that he stays away from other sources of information. It's also very interesting to hear the thought process of a non-reader of the series. You've got to love his anti-Prince Joffrey rant.

A little alarmingly - the series debuted to 2.2 million viewrs - less than half that of Boardwalk Empire and didn't gain any in Week 2 (Though this was Easter Sunday, and at least it didn't lose any). True Blood is hitting 5 million a week now - and I get really nervous about things like htis - given HBO's history and how pricey this series is.

Still - there is still a lot of buzz out there, and given tis multiple airings, it actually went up to 6.8 million views by the time the week was over.

Stag Lord said:

Just goes to show that despite HBO's best promotion efforts, it's still very "niche" and people are reluctant to give a "fantasy" show a shot. Hopefully it'll generate some more word-of-mouth buzz to draw in more non-nerd viewers. At least they already green-lit the second season.

I think the ratings are where they want them to be, 6.8 million being closer to the true viewer numbers for the first week, not counting all the fans who watched illegally via torrent or streams. Boardwalk Empire's 2nd episode also dropped to half of what it's first episode was after the free HBO weekend ended, where Game of Thrones stayed steady, on Easter Sunday even. I believe the Boardwalk Empire number is for all viewings the first night, which then would be comparable to the 4.2 million total across 3 airings for Game of Thrones.

The 2nd episodes numbers are likely to rise from this first reported number as well, as on demand and DVR numbers come in, though I doubt it will have as many airings over the week as the premiere did. From what I have heard the UK ratings have been strong and many countries will not have their international premiere for several months. In comparison, the season 2 premiere of Treme came in at 605,000 viewers. Keep in mind True Blood season 1 came in at below 2 million. There is a good article that was published prior to the premiere comparing the HBO shows with Sparticus, The Tudors and The Walking Dead:

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Season 2 will be the real turning point for the show as new fans pick it up via Netflix and Amazon and DVD/Bluray, which will all add to season 1 profits.

Stag Lord said:

I would say that not dropping in the second week is a very good sign. As mentioned Boardwalk Empire opened very big but had something like a 40% drop the 2nd week so for Game of Thrones to stay at the same level on easter sunday is very good. I was expecting a drop to something like 1.5 million.

Also comparing these numbers with what True Blood has in season 3 is not really fair. True Blood has head a steady rice over three years and it wasn't really until season 2 started that people started talking about the show for real in various media outlets.

I got my wife to sit and watch it with me. She started off asking me about a million questions to get on my nerves and before she knew it she was looked at me and said, "I'll watch it with you next week." That's pretty good as she hates all things from a fantasy setting.

Everything you guys are saying about the ratings is true (though BE ran 3x its first night and when you add all three showings up it drew 7.1 million eyeballs - so either way it owned GoT).Not losing viewers is a good thing and it is a niche product so ti will need time to grow.

I just hope the suits at HBO bear this in mind - turns out they spent BE money on teh ad campaign - around 15 million - and word is they are a little disappointed the initial numbers weren't higher.

Good atricle Karazax -thnks for the link. And i agree with you: Clash of Kings is really going to determine whether or not HBO sticks with the property.

Not that they are huge excuses, but BE had a very recognizable and pretty loved star. True Blood had vampires. Both really hit the US market well.

However, as someone said, I also heard that the per episode sale overseas was twice as much, and they are expecting about a 2X rate on selling DVD's and merchandise as well.

These days, the veiwers are only 1/2 the battle. The merchandise and DVD's/seasons are huge.

javascript:void(0);/*1303924136192*/

Yes, speculation is that HBO uses exact numbers for On Demand and online views, which if true, means watching it there is a way for your viewing to count, even if you aren't a nielsen viewer.

If you haven't checked out the new hbogo.com, it is pretty nice with an interactive version of the first episode, and back episodes of all the HBO series, though not every cable/dish provider has access yet.

Stag Lord said:

Where did you hear that they were disappointed by the initial numbers?

Interesting review from some guy who has never read the books (link below) - cracked me up. His review does reveal that HBO is not doing a great job with names of the characters - could have improved that just by characters referring to each other by name more.

http://www.youtube.com/user/OtakuASSEMBLE#p/a/u/1/TFGlVBvmC4o

Karazax said:

Are you saying if we subscribed to HBO solely to watch Thrones and watch at our normal time viewing that won't count officially?

does anyone else find the portrayal of Cersei very (too?) sympathetic.

I'm not saying that she'll be anyone's favourite character, but they seem intent on developing the Robert/Cersei backstory in a lot of detail, and all from her perspective. I've lent the first book to someone, so I can't go back and check up on details, but I just don't feel the antipathy I had when reading for the first time. Joffrey is spot on though- spoilt brat who likes to bully other children and can't deal with being slapped by Tyrion even though he's half his size- almost wanted them to abandon the plot and let Nymeria rip his head off...

I wonder how they're going to do flashbacks to Robert's rebellion. Mark Addy as old, fat Robert is just about ok, but you need to have the memory of Robert with his Warhammer on the Trident to make it work- might they use the actor who plays Renly (Or Gendry) for those scenes?

Mighty Jim said:

I was thinking they are portraying her as very empathetic, meaning she can easily read other people's emotions, and mimic hers to match. When she was saying goodbye the Cat, and speaking about her lost child, there wasn't any true emotion there, but she needed to try and cover her tracks. I think she's doing a great job with the role, and you can see she's always a few steps ahead.

Karazax said:

Thoroughly enjoyed both of these reviews... very cool to hear it from someone generally unfamiliar with the series... "I'm calling the second episode WHY I HATE THE LANNISTERS!" LMAO

LaughingTree said:

Yes unless you are a Nielsen viewer with a Nielsen box on your TV your view won't count for any TV show you watch on any channel when they are talking Nielsen TV ratings. Of course that doesn't mean your subscription and watching don't matter, because HBO doesn't have advertising and number of subscribers is overall more important than Nielsen numbers, especially considering how high on demand, online, and DVR views tend to be on HBO compared to the estimated number of viewers that Nielsen ratings give.

More info on Nielsen Ratings: javascript:void(0);/*1304047446760*/

Speculation is that HBO knows exactly how many On Demand, and online views from their website they get per account, and probably uses those numbers rather than estimates.

gn0x said:

I dont know, it really did feel like it was meant to be taken as genuine by the readers. It makes sense from a long term point of view as Cersei becomes a sort of tragic hero come book 4 so they might be building up her character from that angle but I was still seriously confused by that Cat/Cersei scene. Can someone remind me if that even hapened in the books please?

On a losely related point, heres a comic about the first episode, while its still relevant =P