DerBarchen said:

It is a change from the books, but it does further solidify the Robert's natural kids are always dark haired plot line, and does not rule out the possibility that the child died of unnatural causes.

I honestly dont remember, did Cersei ever Have a child by Robert? It was a big point in the books that Cersei aborted all her Robert-begoten children

HBOgo.com gave access to several more cable/dish providers yesterday. If you just added HBO for Game of Thrones, you might as well make the most of your money and check out some of the older series. Rome is probably the closest to Game of Thrones, but all the other series like Sopranos and The Wire that have been on HBO are there too, and the excellent miniseries like Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

The Game of Thrones cast list has been updated with pics from more characters that haven't been seen in episodes yet: javascript:void(0);/*1304225397322*/

Rome is such an amazing, amazing show. They don't quite look the part, but Marc Antony and Attia are Jamie and Cersei to a T. Really, wish that guy had been Jaime in AGoT.

Kennon said:

I had the same thought when watching Thrones, its So very reminiscnet of Rome. I kind of got all my friends to watch the show by saying "basically, its Rome but Medieval" =)

Edit: And Boromir is in it!!

Kennon shared this on facebook not too long ago. Freaking awesome.

Kennon said:

As a fan of both shows, I must agree. Good observation, Kennon. Though I don't mind the actor they chose for Jaime either. He seems a good fit for how I pictured him in my mind.

ASoIaFfan said:

I cant wait to see how he'll portray the events of the 3rd and 4th books, where Jaime becomes a rather sympathetic POV. I think he does a really good job of acting out Jaime's dual nature of totally ruthless and kind of romantic though, there are few actors who would have done it well. Too bad Heath Ledger isn't around anymore...

In other news, how AWESOME was

It was fun to see Syrio. And Eddard's face while watching was interesting (happy, then worried?).

A pretty slow episode for non-fans however...

Great Tyrion episode however.

DerBarchen said:

I think the reason is simple: They don't plan on exploring the Dothraki all that much. And in that sacrifice, Dany is made stronger because it seems as though she conquered the brute (Episode 2).

Karazax said:

Another entertaining review:

Main mistake he makes is confusing white walkers and wildlings, and thinking Tyrion won the dagger by winning the tournament himself. He also can't remember Littlefinger's name.

bloodycelt said:

Oh yes, it all makes sense I just thought the difference between the book and tv show was funny in context. I absolutely love how theyve done the whole Dany/Drogo thing!

haha, fan reviews <3 The sillier the better!

rings said:

But yeah, agreed. Compared to the first two episodes, this one was slow but (I think) very satisfying.

rings said:

My only complaint is Syrio should have been bald!!!!

And Palm trees in Kings Landing was a bit wrong on the trees IMO

But Barristan was good to see finally and Arya is doing a great job.

This was a tough episode for TV since at this part in the book it was pretty slow, just setting up events for next few episodes which should see more excitement.

LaughingTree said:

Yes, Syrio is supposed to be bald. but introducing two bald characters in the same episode makes it more confusing for the viewers to keep them apart. There is no mistaking Syrio for any other character in the show.

I think this is the episode where all the catching up got done. The first episode was selling the show, the second was selling the characters, and now this one explaining what has happened before. At this point, most of the setup is established, and we are ready for everything to happen.

i compare this to my father-in-law. The first time he read AGoT, he put it down after about 250 pages because nothing was happening. All of us (his kids, wife, in-law spuses) convinved him to give it another try. And we read all four books in about a month.

Yup, this episode was pretty rad. While I can understand the reasoning behind not introducing two bald characters in one episode to an extent (I think his facial hair would have made him memorable enough as being different) I just couldn't stand the hair he had. I know I just sound like Jeppedo, but that was distractingly bad. It made one of my favorite badass characters come off as a joke.

It's so interesting to hear the comments from all of the fans (both the veterans and the newcomers via the show). I think the varied opinions is a true testament to how incredibly descriptive, layered, well paced and visionary Martin's writing is in terms of what can and can't be translated into the show.

For me, the PROS of the show have been:

1. The Realized Westeros: We finally get to see Westeros in three dimensions. We can now appreciate the scale, the texture, the atmosphere, the beauty, the ugliness and everything in between the Wall to the Summer Sea!

2. The Casting: I think 90-95% of the casting has been spot on. Many of the actors (in their makeup and wardrobe) have really captured the essence of their AGOT counterparts; especially Jaime, Viserys, Jon, and Arya. But Peter Dinklage and Mark Addy, for me, have really outshone all the other actors in terms of bringing their Tyrion and Robert (respectively) to the screen.

The CONS:

1. Adaptation - I know that there are only 10 hours and yet I feel that the writing team has not taken the best advantage of adapting the story (from what I have seen so far) to satisfy the literal translation of the story. I sense that many invented plot devices will be introduced to spirit along the major plotline - which is fine; but it detracts from the real treasure of Martin's books; the secondary players and their stories. So far, I wished the adaptation was done with a finer hand.

Overall - and I've only seen 3 episodes granted - I will rate the show as 3.5 of 5 stars. I hope by the end this will change to 4.5 or 5, but my biggest fear is that the script to screen adaptation team was overwhelmed as to how to accomplish bringing Book One to a 10 hour series. I'm not envious of that task.

However and conversely - Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens were able to do so (and in contrast much more deftly) with their 14 hour adaptation of Lord of the Rings.

Last note: I hope that the screenwriters listen to their audience while making their choices for A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords (and beyond) because those book are significantly more complex and if they struggled with the first book, how much more will they with subsequent books.

Thanks for reading,

Methos

Methos said:

I am a fan of both and want to point out that there's a budget difference of about 2:1 from LOTR to AGoT.

JerusalemJones said:

I don't think anyone would ever mistake Syrio for Varys. Syrio's actor did a good job with speaking quite differently and his elegant sword teaching was quite different from what we've seen of the Westerosi knights. Especially in the same episode watching how Jon Snow fights as trained by north master-at-arms. But Syrio with a fro? It was amusing, I'll say that.

And again palm trees are all wrong for Kings Landing and its climate and location. Anyway not to be overly critical but as connoisseur of bonsai I know my trees. Oaks, cedars, yews, cypress and maybe maples would have been a better choice for Kings Landing.

Other than that though I did very much enjoy the episode.

I guess it was always likely to happen, but I wasn't a great fan of the way they felt the need to remove a lot of the subtlety that is in the books. Jorah Mormont's reaction to hearing that Dany is pregnant was the most obvious example, but there were other bits too.

Also, the scene between Jamie and Ned in the Throne Room was odd- no mention of when Ned found Jamie sitting on the Iron Throne at the end of the rebellion, because they were too busy filling in back story about how Brandon died.

All in all, I think 3 was a strange eppisode. Not a lot happened, but it still felt a bit rushed- like how quickly Jon becomes friends with Pip and Gren.

I didn't enjoy the third episode that much. The worst part for me was the clunky inclusion of many expositional scenes and dialogues that prevented the episode from having a good natural flow. I also wasn't crazy about some of the performances; Littlefinger was less mischievous than I would have liked, Maester Aemon more dramatic than I thought him to be, the whole scene with Robert in his chamber with Barristan, Lancel and Jaime was a mess, and what is up with Lancel? He looks ridiculous.

I did enjoy Varys, though. I felt he got the mixture of subservient manner and hidden knowledge just right. Also loved Syrio, bald head or no. The ending was weird, too. I appreciate the idea as a way of showing Ned's fear for his family and the premonition that all the "play" of war and power might turn into real violence down the line, but I still feel it was a very odd way to end the episode.

Saturnine said:

I agree on Varys - great casting there.

On the ending, I liked it a lot more on the 2nd viewing. His face changes, and you can hear battle noises in the background (I missed this the first time) like he is having a vision of the war coming.

When we were watching, we really thought he was about to go into a flashback of Robert's Rebellion.

i thought this as well and was disappointed when it didn't happen. However, as it ended up being the last shot, I like what they did with the scene.