Game of Thrones
In honor of A Dance With Dragons coming out in a week (so happy I could diiiiie!!!), I’m going to talk a little about the Game of Thrones TV series. Basically, it was everything I had hoped for. Not totally flawless, but I am still ridiculously in love with it. It was as if someone had taken the images in my head as I read the book and filmed them and edited in more boobs and then showed them on TV.
The casting for this show was impeccable. At the very beginning, I was worried about the woman playing Dany-there wasn’t anything wrong, exactly, but she just wasn’t bringing it for me. And then she got awesome. Now my only remaining Dany-related problem is that her hair didn’t burn off in the final scene, gdit. The show changed the Dany/Drogo first time scene, and I think I actually prefer it: it didn’t show Dany as getting on board the sex train as soon as they were naked, as happened in the books. While the nonconsensual nature of the scene made it hard to watch, I still thought it made more sense for her character at that time.
Jon Snow’s actor is my least favorite, I think, but I don’t full out dislike him. He is just always gawping like a fish, glub glub glub. I have hopes that he’ll improve on this in further seasons.
Some of my favorite castings are the ones who have died already: Sean Bean was so on point as Ned, King Robert was absolutely perfect, and I’m pretty sure I actually liked Drogo more in the TV series than the book. And then there are all of the castings I like that are going to die. Boo, too much death.
The quality of the child actors in this series is one of the most impressive things about it. Sansa, Arya, and Bran are all doing wonderful jobs (especially Sansa and Arya, Bran hasn’t really had much in the way of screen shots yet). Joffrey’s actor is doing such a good job of being a horrible little monster, though I wouldn’t call him a child actor, since he’s my age. How is that even possible, by the way? He looks so young! The actor who plays Gendry, though he has only had a little bit of screen time, seems like he will be doing a great job. He has such a perfect look for the character, though I imagined his hair would be a little longer. Ditto for Renly-always pictured the dude with flowing locks.
Hooray for Renly and Loras getting officially canonized (I suppose George already did that in a blog post, but it was nice of them to get a scene). It’s going to make scenes with King Renly in the next book so much more poignant. I’m excited to see who gets cast as Margaery, too. The Tyrells are my my favorite. I really, really want Willas to get an official introduction in Dance. I had such high hopes for he and Sansa, though in my heart I knew it would never happen because that would be too happy. And, deep down, I’m mostly a SanSan shipper.
Loras’s characterization seems a little bit off to me; I never imagined him as being the social-climbing force behind Renly, really. Maybe I am forgetting something from the book, but I always imagined him as more being will-die-for-you-loyal, supporting whatever ideas Renly came up with. Not that I thought he didn’t have a mind of his own, but the Kingship ideas seemed too much his own. He was Renly’s squire, after all; I imagine he would defer to him.
The actor who plays Petyr Baelish is one of my favorites in the series. I was never a huge Littlefinger fan, but he is one of my favorite characters in the show. His bickering with Varys and his quip at Renly (“And when will you be having your friend?”) were delivered with such wonderful, sinister mirth. His scene in the whorehouse was stupid, though. Not his fault. The blame there goes to HBO for having two pointless whores pleasuring each other in the background for no reason. We get it, HBO, you’re edgy, but cut all the useless sexposition. Also, add some fucking peen, jesus h. christ. And scarylarge Hodor mule dong does not count.
In other whore related business, what the fuck is up with Roz? She. Is. Not. A. Real. Character. Please give her a gruesome death in good GRRM fashion, HBO. She is taking up good time from real characters.
Another problem: why are the nicening up the Hound so much? He is supposed to be a drunken, swearing, violent man, that’s why his scenes with Sansa where he shows some kindness to her are so meaningful. One of the few people who shows kindness to Sansa is this total dirtbag, what up with that? It makes them interesting. In the show, he’s sort of just a sad puppy. The scene where he tells Sansa about his scars was given over to Littlefinger, for whatever fucking reason-Littlefinger got plenty scenes creepin’ on Sansa, Sandor and she need more relationship development.
Peter Dinklage is knocking it out of the park as Tyrion. I was hesitant about this casting at first: I knew Peter Dinklage acting chops would be more than good enough to carry the roll, but Peter Dinklage is also sort of studly, and Tyrion is supposed to be ugly as fuck. While they didn’t make any attempt to ugly him up, he’s done such a good job with the role that I can’t really mind. I think it will take away from scenes like his wedding night, where there is such a focus on how horrified Sansa is by how ugly he is/deformed/old/etc. I also worry about the fandom response to this; I feel there will be a huge outcry against Sansa like “omg why would you not sleep with him omg blaaah” when she’s really just a scared kid.
The guy playing Jorah has made me like the character even more, just like Littlefinger. Jorah is sort of studly, and oh sweet god his voice. I had some slight Jorah/Dany leanings when I read the series, but now I’m jumping on that ship and sailing it all the way to Asshai.
Um um what else I have so many feelings on this. The costumes/sets were perfect; I felt instantly transported to the world. The scenes above the wall had such a cold atmosphere, they were beautiful. And Winterfell looked so perfect and made for stark (haha, get it?) contrast with the lush scenes in the south.
So in conclusion: HBO is kicking serious ass. The ass may be flawed, but these flaws really don’t matter in comparison to the sheer awesomeness of almost everything in the series.
Possibly a post about my hopes for Dance later this week?
The casting for this show was impeccable. At the very beginning, I was worried about the woman playing Dany-there wasn’t anything wrong, exactly, but she just wasn’t bringing it for me. And then she got awesome. Now my only remaining Dany-related problem is that her hair didn’t burn off in the final scene, gdit. The show changed the Dany/Drogo first time scene, and I think I actually prefer it: it didn’t show Dany as getting on board the sex train as soon as they were naked, as happened in the books. While the nonconsensual nature of the scene made it hard to watch, I still thought it made more sense for her character at that time.
Jon Snow’s actor is my least favorite, I think, but I don’t full out dislike him. He is just always gawping like a fish, glub glub glub. I have hopes that he’ll improve on this in further seasons.
Some of my favorite castings are the ones who have died already: Sean Bean was so on point as Ned, King Robert was absolutely perfect, and I’m pretty sure I actually liked Drogo more in the TV series than the book. And then there are all of the castings I like that are going to die. Boo, too much death.
The quality of the child actors in this series is one of the most impressive things about it. Sansa, Arya, and Bran are all doing wonderful jobs (especially Sansa and Arya, Bran hasn’t really had much in the way of screen shots yet). Joffrey’s actor is doing such a good job of being a horrible little monster, though I wouldn’t call him a child actor, since he’s my age. How is that even possible, by the way? He looks so young! The actor who plays Gendry, though he has only had a little bit of screen time, seems like he will be doing a great job. He has such a perfect look for the character, though I imagined his hair would be a little longer. Ditto for Renly-always pictured the dude with flowing locks.
Hooray for Renly and Loras getting officially canonized (I suppose George already did that in a blog post, but it was nice of them to get a scene). It’s going to make scenes with King Renly in the next book so much more poignant. I’m excited to see who gets cast as Margaery, too. The Tyrells are my my favorite. I really, really want Willas to get an official introduction in Dance. I had such high hopes for he and Sansa, though in my heart I knew it would never happen because that would be too happy. And, deep down, I’m mostly a SanSan shipper.
Loras’s characterization seems a little bit off to me; I never imagined him as being the social-climbing force behind Renly, really. Maybe I am forgetting something from the book, but I always imagined him as more being will-die-for-you-loyal, supporting whatever ideas Renly came up with. Not that I thought he didn’t have a mind of his own, but the Kingship ideas seemed too much his own. He was Renly’s squire, after all; I imagine he would defer to him.
The actor who plays Petyr Baelish is one of my favorites in the series. I was never a huge Littlefinger fan, but he is one of my favorite characters in the show. His bickering with Varys and his quip at Renly (“And when will you be having your friend?”) were delivered with such wonderful, sinister mirth. His scene in the whorehouse was stupid, though. Not his fault. The blame there goes to HBO for having two pointless whores pleasuring each other in the background for no reason. We get it, HBO, you’re edgy, but cut all the useless sexposition. Also, add some fucking peen, jesus h. christ. And scarylarge Hodor mule dong does not count.
In other whore related business, what the fuck is up with Roz? She. Is. Not. A. Real. Character. Please give her a gruesome death in good GRRM fashion, HBO. She is taking up good time from real characters.
Another problem: why are the nicening up the Hound so much? He is supposed to be a drunken, swearing, violent man, that’s why his scenes with Sansa where he shows some kindness to her are so meaningful. One of the few people who shows kindness to Sansa is this total dirtbag, what up with that? It makes them interesting. In the show, he’s sort of just a sad puppy. The scene where he tells Sansa about his scars was given over to Littlefinger, for whatever fucking reason-Littlefinger got plenty scenes creepin’ on Sansa, Sandor and she need more relationship development.
Peter Dinklage is knocking it out of the park as Tyrion. I was hesitant about this casting at first: I knew Peter Dinklage acting chops would be more than good enough to carry the roll, but Peter Dinklage is also sort of studly, and Tyrion is supposed to be ugly as fuck. While they didn’t make any attempt to ugly him up, he’s done such a good job with the role that I can’t really mind. I think it will take away from scenes like his wedding night, where there is such a focus on how horrified Sansa is by how ugly he is/deformed/old/etc. I also worry about the fandom response to this; I feel there will be a huge outcry against Sansa like “omg why would you not sleep with him omg blaaah” when she’s really just a scared kid.
The guy playing Jorah has made me like the character even more, just like Littlefinger. Jorah is sort of studly, and oh sweet god his voice. I had some slight Jorah/Dany leanings when I read the series, but now I’m jumping on that ship and sailing it all the way to Asshai.
Um um what else I have so many feelings on this. The costumes/sets were perfect; I felt instantly transported to the world. The scenes above the wall had such a cold atmosphere, they were beautiful. And Winterfell looked so perfect and made for stark (haha, get it?) contrast with the lush scenes in the south.
So in conclusion: HBO is kicking serious ass. The ass may be flawed, but these flaws really don’t matter in comparison to the sheer awesomeness of almost everything in the series.
Possibly a post about my hopes for Dance later this week?