Game of Thrones (episodes 01-03)
Okay! So the newest Big Thing in the Fantasy genre is, of course, Game of Thrones and I am really enjoying it so far. Three episodes in and it is incredible. Heck, one episode in and I was hooked.
And man, there is a lot to talk about! First of all, this series is based on George R. R. Martin's series of novels A Song of Ice and Fire. I have not read these books, hadn't even heard of them untill this show came out. The author is co-executive producer though so Im going to make a (possibly naive) assumption that the story is being handled with respect and not butchered to death as often happens.
Game of Thrones has a massive cast of characters. First of all we have the Stark familey, who are more or less the obvious main characters. The father and head of this familey, Ned Stark, is played by Sean Bean and....well he looks almost exactly like he did as Boromir in Lord of the Rings, but what are you gonna do. His character is the proud, noble, honest sort, who fights for justice, upholds the law, and is intensly loyal to his King. And his family largely reflect that, with the exception of a particularily stupid daughter. He has six children altogether: two sons who we havent really seen much of, one younger son who figures very prominently into the plot, two daughters, one who is, like, a totally teenage idiot, and the other, younger one, who is obviously destined to become a kick ass warrior lady, and lastly, a bastard son who his wife despises. It is worth noting that the subject of Ned's infedelity is thus far being handled rather well, with all the emotional baggage you would expect to come with it. His wife is clearly still bitter it, and Ned shows considerable moments of regret.
In any case, so far, four of these Stark children matter greatly to the plot.
Next is the Royal Family. The King is Neds close friend, and he seems like a decent sort of man. Interesting bit of backstory with him and Neds deceased sister. The Queen on the other hand, is a thoughroughly horrible character, power hungry, greedy, manipulative, and vindicative. An utterly terrible character to have around, really. Her brother is no different, and in fact, may be even worse then she is. There are moments when it seems like the Queen is the way she is out of survival instinct, but her brother seems to be truely evil.
The Prince, as well, takes after his mother and uncle, and is an absolutly horrible brat of a child. Spoiled, pretentious, self obsessed, greedy, brat. Obviously, having learnt from example. The only other likable member of the Royal Family asside from the King is the Queens other, not asshole, brother. Tyrion, played by Peter Dinklage, is quite possibly my favourite character in this series. His character is incredibly well thought out, well executed, well acted, well developed. You see, Tyrion is a dwarf.
Now, its worth noting that this makes Game of Thrones different from most Fantasy stories, because in most Fantasy dwarves are not humans. They are a seperate species, like elves. But Game of Thrones decided to go with more real world logistics, and dwarves are humans, just like in real life. That being said, Tyrion is the dwarf prince. The people have nicknamed him "The Imp". But he's decided instead of being bitter about it, to wear it with pride and let it toughen him. His character is always a joy to watch, and most especially his interactions with Neds bastard son, who he begins to share a bond with. Tyrion is not at all like his brother or sister, and is a truely likeable, good guy character. A tad rough around the edges, but then appearing bad but with a heart of gold is much preferable to appearing good but being rotton to the core.
Now! That is all for the one side of the war that is brewing.
On the other side we have a different cast of characters altogether.
Viserys and his sister Daenerys (who is my other favourite character) are the banished children of the deposed King, who the current King took over from. Not much is revealed about the political backstory, but it has become clear that Viserys is, by blood, the rightfull king.
The problem is that he is also an aboslute self-centered pig with no care for anyone other than his own selfish whims and wants, who would glady stab people in the back, sell his sister to rapists, and reinstate slavery in order to get to where he wants, and he wants the throne. His sister on the other hand is a darling sweet thing who as she says "just wants to go home", but instead has been forced by her evil (yes, truely evil) brother into an arranged marriage against her will. Why? Enter Khal Drogo, played by Jason Momoa (who I LOVED in Stargate: Atlantis and cant wait to see in Conan the Barbarian) is a warlord of the Dothraki, a very hard and brutal race of people who live a very violence filled life. Khal has an army, and giving his sister to him in marriage will secure his help in reclaiming his throne. Daenerys is a very dynamic character. In the first episode the poor girl is very timid, and terrified of the imposing, hard, seemingly cruel man that is to be her husband, but by the third episode, she is starting to find her courage and is transforming into a Warrior Queen. It will be interesting to see what she does. Khal is not a bad sort of man, at least from what we have so far seen, but he is very cold, and seemingly unfeeling.
But the real monster here is Viserys. I have never wanted a character to suffer a painfull death more then he.
SO as far as the politics. We have in line for the kingship two options, currently. Viserys and Prince Joffrey, both being utterly terrible choices. But all is not lost, as we have on both sides people to try to fix things, the Starks, and Daenerys.
It will be very interesting to see where things go from here.
But to throw things even more for a loop, the "Whitewalkers" (ie, Undead) are on their way to just screw everything up for everybody.
Now, on the subject of content, this series has been described as being "Beyond Rated R".
There is nudity. There is sex. There is violence and blood and gore and there is incredibly heavy, dark, and disturbing subject matter. This series is realy not for the squeemish, and there have been some scenes that particularily made me wince. If you can stomach it though, its incredibly well done.