100 Reviews: 8
So, another pretty detailed review. willowfaerie2 asked me to do some Game of Thrones reviews, in particular 1x09 “Baelor” otherwise known as “book fans sit back and watch new viewers get the full Martin treatment for the first time.”
GoT: 1x09: Baelor
Before I get going I want to establish the perspective from which I’m speaking. I’ve been a fan of the books for a few years now, but I’m not one who’s pored over them for all the detail. There are definitely parts that have slipped my mind. I will try not to put too many overt spoilers for later books here, but I’m not even going to try and avoid mention of things that have aired (at this point through season 2); I will make comparisons to the book and some bits of later events are sure to slip through so the truly book-knowledge--avoidant proceed at your own risk.
(And that’s why I don’t do a lot of GoT reviews, because people are at so many different levels of “spoilers” that I have mostly just decided it’s easier not to do reviews, although I will respond to others’ posts)
All that out of the way, let’s get down to business (feel free to sing it).
Dany
Oh book/season 1 Dany, I remember why I used to love you. Here you seem awesome instead of whiney and entitled Even if you are making awful, and rather foolish choices. It’s mostly understandable here considering the circumstances and the fact that you didn’t really avoid the madness side of the Targ bloodline as much as you like to think.
A side note, Dany’s story is weird in that they keep killing off characters that are still alive to date in the books. Kind of understandable in some cases since some of them disappear from the story for several books and so TPTB apparently decided to write around those problems when they come up, take the opportunity to u the body count even higher, and not worry about whether the actors will still be available when they come up again.
Jon & the Wall
I’m starting to doubt we’ll get the scene where Thorne shows the wight’s hand to Joffrey and the court.
Really, this episode is set up for Jon’s actions in the season finale, and a way to work the Aemon backstory into the show. But at the same time it’s hard to get the feeling like the Aemon story had as much impact on Jon as it did in the books, or maybe it’s just that the first time I read it it had a big impact on me which of course I didn’t get in the show since it wasn’t a surprise any more, or that show-Aemon doesn’t get as much development as book-Aemon. It’s still well done, just doesn’t get to me as much as it did in the book.
Starks. vs. Lannisters
I think the chief problem with the (non)battle scenes is how obviously we cut around both of them in rapid succession. In the books we get Tyrion’s first-hand account of fighting in the battle (not knocked out) and later the Robb battle told in flashback (since Cat’s the POV character). But then they also changed the entire make-up of Tyrion’s battle with it basically being a bluff on the Northmen’s side rather than a full scale battle. However, it actually bugs me less now than it did at the time, maybe because we did get to see some of Tyrion the (not so great, but effective under pressure) fighter in 2x09 that we didn’t get here. And the Whispering Wood battle was never going to be necessary to see; and although it would have been nice to get more info again hard to work into the show.
Basically at this point I’m more okay with a lot of these elements than I was on first watch because even Shae has improved a lot in season 2. I do wonder how some of Shae’s later actions are going to work with the way they’ve taken her in the show, because show-Shae =/= book-Shae but since they managed to make the changes work with some more time we’ll see what the end result is.
Although I’m still of two minds about the casting of Walder Frey because he has the attitude exactly right, he’s just not the way the old bastard looks in my head, or...he is but he should be a shrunken shriveled version of that. And I wish they had worked in the book line about it taking a man to enter into a marriage pact; it was there in the performance but it’s a good line.
King’s Landing
This is an area where it not being a surprise didn’t hurt anything, because even the changes were excellent. Except in a way it was a relief, as I’d (and a lot of others I get the impression) been expecting *the* event to happen in episode 8 rather than 9; and afterward I got to sit back and watch first timers go nuts. And it isn’t the last event that I get a lot of enjoyment from watching fandom for (this year the shadow baby was probably the big one that I enjoyed watching people freak over, but there are more to come). I get to laugh at their pain, but I am waiting with milk and cookies too, because we’ve all been there; whether you got to this moment through te books or the show we all had to go through the shock and disbelief of it.
It’s not as if there’s a ton more to say about this that hasn’t been said before (by book fans and show ones), just that it’s really well realized for the show. In fact the external POV/visual medium may make it even better than it is in the book.
Next time:
Probably either more Doctor Who or TVD
Want to suggest something?
GoT: 1x09: Baelor
Before I get going I want to establish the perspective from which I’m speaking. I’ve been a fan of the books for a few years now, but I’m not one who’s pored over them for all the detail. There are definitely parts that have slipped my mind. I will try not to put too many overt spoilers for later books here, but I’m not even going to try and avoid mention of things that have aired (at this point through season 2); I will make comparisons to the book and some bits of later events are sure to slip through so the truly book-knowledge--avoidant proceed at your own risk.
(And that’s why I don’t do a lot of GoT reviews, because people are at so many different levels of “spoilers” that I have mostly just decided it’s easier not to do reviews, although I will respond to others’ posts)
All that out of the way, let’s get down to business (feel free to sing it).
Dany
Oh book/season 1 Dany, I remember why I used to love you. Here you seem awesome instead of whiney and entitled Even if you are making awful, and rather foolish choices. It’s mostly understandable here considering the circumstances and the fact that you didn’t really avoid the madness side of the Targ bloodline as much as you like to think.
A side note, Dany’s story is weird in that they keep killing off characters that are still alive to date in the books. Kind of understandable in some cases since some of them disappear from the story for several books and so TPTB apparently decided to write around those problems when they come up, take the opportunity to u the body count even higher, and not worry about whether the actors will still be available when they come up again.
Jon & the Wall
I’m starting to doubt we’ll get the scene where Thorne shows the wight’s hand to Joffrey and the court.
Really, this episode is set up for Jon’s actions in the season finale, and a way to work the Aemon backstory into the show. But at the same time it’s hard to get the feeling like the Aemon story had as much impact on Jon as it did in the books, or maybe it’s just that the first time I read it it had a big impact on me which of course I didn’t get in the show since it wasn’t a surprise any more, or that show-Aemon doesn’t get as much development as book-Aemon. It’s still well done, just doesn’t get to me as much as it did in the book.
Starks. vs. Lannisters
I think the chief problem with the (non)battle scenes is how obviously we cut around both of them in rapid succession. In the books we get Tyrion’s first-hand account of fighting in the battle (not knocked out) and later the Robb battle told in flashback (since Cat’s the POV character). But then they also changed the entire make-up of Tyrion’s battle with it basically being a bluff on the Northmen’s side rather than a full scale battle. However, it actually bugs me less now than it did at the time, maybe because we did get to see some of Tyrion the (not so great, but effective under pressure) fighter in 2x09 that we didn’t get here. And the Whispering Wood battle was never going to be necessary to see; and although it would have been nice to get more info again hard to work into the show.
Basically at this point I’m more okay with a lot of these elements than I was on first watch because even Shae has improved a lot in season 2. I do wonder how some of Shae’s later actions are going to work with the way they’ve taken her in the show, because show-Shae =/= book-Shae but since they managed to make the changes work with some more time we’ll see what the end result is.
Although I’m still of two minds about the casting of Walder Frey because he has the attitude exactly right, he’s just not the way the old bastard looks in my head, or...he is but he should be a shrunken shriveled version of that. And I wish they had worked in the book line about it taking a man to enter into a marriage pact; it was there in the performance but it’s a good line.
King’s Landing
This is an area where it not being a surprise didn’t hurt anything, because even the changes were excellent. Except in a way it was a relief, as I’d (and a lot of others I get the impression) been expecting *the* event to happen in episode 8 rather than 9; and afterward I got to sit back and watch first timers go nuts. And it isn’t the last event that I get a lot of enjoyment from watching fandom for (this year the shadow baby was probably the big one that I enjoyed watching people freak over, but there are more to come). I get to laugh at their pain, but I am waiting with milk and cookies too, because we’ve all been there; whether you got to this moment through te books or the show we all had to go through the shock and disbelief of it.
It’s not as if there’s a ton more to say about this that hasn’t been said before (by book fans and show ones), just that it’s really well realized for the show. In fact the external POV/visual medium may make it even better than it is in the book.
Next time:
Probably either more Doctor Who or TVD
Want to suggest something?