Game of Thrones (HBO) - Time to jump on board

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, and would like to check it out / catch up before they go into their second season in April, HBO is Re-airing the entire first season in order.

It will begin Thursday, January 26th at 10 pm. And every Thursday thereafter for 10 weeks.

For those living under a rock who've never heard of this, the story is set in a loosely medieval time period. But a world where winters can last a decade or longer. Yes, it's "fantasy." No, there's not a whole lot of over-the-top magic, etc. It's fairly grounded. There are some of those elements, but they're more in the background.

It's based on the series of books, "A Song of Ice and Fire" (the first of which was "A Game of Thrones") by George RR Martin. I'm currently on my 4th re-read of the entire series to date. It's kind of addictive, and you see something new each time. Currently, there's 5 books published, with 2 more set to be written. Each book is 900-1100 pages long, so there's a ton of story.

If you like fantasy, or swords and sandal type shows, or even if you're just looking for a break from the current shows and want something new, I highly recommend this. I won't lie. It can be a bit "dense" in the number of characters and story lines at first to a neophyte. But stick with it, and you won't regret it. Besides, it has something for everyone: Epic scenery, brilliant acting, backstabbing politics, pretty decent eye candy for both guys and gals, sex (it IS HBO, and the books have a fair amount anyway), and lots of bloody violence.

It's also not for the feint of heart. If some bad language or nudity offends you. Your loss, but this might not be the show for you. Just a fair warning (also not for younger children).

A couple trailers to give you a glimpse of what the show is:

I'm putting both under spoilers because it's a bit risque in 1 or 2 spots. No nudity, but better safe than sorry.


[video=youtube;5PxLidxnAE8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PxLidxnAE8[/video]

[video=youtube;BpJYNVhGf1s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpJYNVhGf1s[/video]

 

OK, as someone who is a HUGE fan of the LOTR trilogy...it's a little weird that I haven't seen these yet. I have all the episodes recorded, but I've never found an opportune time to watch them. Maybe in the next few days I can make a point to watch at least the first episode.

 

As a relatively avid reader, I've read both LOTR and ASOIF (Game of Thrones) several times, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that GRRM eats Tolkien for breakfast. Now, Tolkien uses a lot more "magic" than GRRM does (at least so far), but story wise, LOTR becomes boring after reading ASOIF.

With your RDR coming soon, you're going to be hard pressed for time.

The second season of Game of Thrones starts April 1st. That's why I made this post so those who've heard about it but never checked it out before have a chance to get on board and caught up before it starts. You have yours recorded already, so you're ahead of the game. I think you'll like them.

The books go into even more detail, of course, but the series so far has been mostly loyal to the source material. Like I mentioned before, there's a ton of characters to keep track of, and some back story the series tries to give you, but the books do better. As a self-proclaimed local ASOIF expert, I'm always happy to answer questions or fill in the blanks... without spoiling of course. (You do NOT want spoilers on this. And any good ASOIF fan would never spoil it for you. There's so many shocking twists or events in the series, and that's what makes it so damned good. To spoil it would be to rob someone of the experience)

 

Reminder:

The entire first season begins re-airing TONIGHT on HBO and every Thursday leading up to the Season 2 premiere. One of the best shows on TV. Aimed squarely at a more adult audience, of course (as most of HBO's shows are). This ain't family TV. Well, mature teenagers can handle it, but each parent would have to judge.

 

The wife and I have had a few 'movie nights' and have watched episodes 1 through 6. It's pretty addicting as well as unpredictable. I was really hoping Ned Stark would take Lannister's head in that sword fight, but I figured it wouldn't end that way. I've read the first 5 chapters or so of book one and it seems to follow loosely. I'm curious though, are the books as NC-17 as the shows, or is that just HBO doin' what they do?

 

I wouldn't call them NC-17. Yes, there's ADULT situations / behavior, but it's not overly graphic. Frankly, a lot of the more "risque" stuff is more cringe inducing than titillating... intentionally so. Some of it to emphasize the different cultures of the areas. Some of it to show inequality or imbalance of power in a relationship. It's more frank than overtly "risque." These things happen in life, and it doesn't shy away from them. Neither does it glorify them.

And this is a story where... well, not everything is as it seems. Not everyone is who they seem. The "bad guys" sometimes win. The "good guys" can do evil acts. And....

Don't get too attached to anyone.

The joke in the GOT on-line community is it could easily be called "Game of HOLY ****s" It's one story where if someone is in danger, you FEEL the danger. Because George RR Martin is not above killing off anyone at any time for any reason. "Oh, so and so is too important. Of course they'll make it out of this." LMAO... not here. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't.

The show follows the books pretty closely. They make a few subtle changes to save time, or condense the story (with the author's permission), but it's really faithful to the source material.

 

GRRM also made the story to reflect how things were in our medieval times. Females were of marrying age once they could bear children (early teens). Boys were considered "men" at 15-16. Most marriages were matters of political or financial arrangements. Romance didn't really enter the equation. And in many cultures, women were little better than property. It's not intended to be misogynistic. It's the culture of that civilization (and there are other cultures in the book's world that do not share those views... and female characters that buck those laws or "traditions.")

(And a 45 year old man was OLD in those days. If you got over 60, you were ancient)

Some of the main characters start off VERY young in the books. He aged them in part to make them a certain age by the end of the story. He's said recently that he miscalculated and wishes he aged some of them up a few years, but that's why some of them are so young in the books. When HBO made the show, for obvious reasons, some of the ages weren't going to work, and he suggested the appropriate changes.

For instance, Daenarys in the first book is only 13 (14?) when we first meet her. But on the show, she's 18-19. Sansa is only 11, but 14-15 on the show. Arya was only 9, but she's 12 on the show give or take. Brandon was only 8, but he's 10 in the show.

By extension, Ned, Robert, Cat, etc were in their early/mid 30s, but they put them into their 40s here. Robert's war for the throne was 16 years ago in the book, but I think 19 in the show.

 

That was just my polite way of trying to ask if there was as much sex in the books as there was on the show. Having enjoyed various HBO series, I just wondered if they added certain scenes for the sake of putting a 'made for HBO' stamp on it. Glad to hear that's not the case.

Unfortunately, I was punched in the gut with a spoiler a few weeks back. I'll say no more of it, but it's the only thing I knew that happened in the show, and it's a bell that can't be unrung.(It hasn't happened yet as of episode 6)

I'm trying not to be too attached as difficult as that is.

 

Well, to be more exact, some of those scenes are most definitely HBO being HBO. There's a couple of (nude) scenes that come to mind that do not happen in the books. But overall, I don't think it's going overboard.

For instance, the character, Ros (the prostitute you've seen with Tyrion and Theon) doesn't even exist in the books. But her character is there to give you insight into character motivations or to facilitate exposition (without a narrator, getting info to the audience in an entertaining way is difficult). Of course, HBO flexes it's "cable" muscle doing it. People started referring to it as "sexposition."

I'm guessing the spoiler you found out about, and...

Spoiler

It's Sean Bean. You should have seen it coming. It's also the game changer that lets the reader (and now viewer) know that all bets are off.

 

You've watched up to episode 6, so I'll post up to there with these. Someone rather clever made parodies based on the episodes (and book info to a point). They're pretty funny. Hiding them within spoilers of course.

[spoiler:2xyf7roi][youtube:2xyf7roi]ajMzpiyZ4GA[/youtube:2xyf7roi][/spoiler:2xyf7roi]

[spoiler:2xyf7roi][youtube:2xyf7roi]k5BvNYdcH0c[/youtube:2xyf7roi][/spoiler:2xyf7roi]

[spoiler:2xyf7roi][youtube:2xyf7roi]OlNJTMVRdSU[/youtube:2xyf7roi][/spoiler:2xyf7roi]

[spoiler:2xyf7roi][youtube:2xyf7roi]wKJfFI7E5o4[/youtube:2xyf7roi] The comment about the wolves is because they feature heavily in that scene in the book. But on the show, they're absent.[/spoiler:2xyf7roi]

 

Interesting, and pretty clever really with Theon's character.

Spoiler

Wait, what?? Sean Bean?? OMG!

Spoiler

Sorry, couldn't resist. Yeah, that was the one. I don't know if I would have truly saw it coming or not, based on how many twists and turns there are, but yeah...there's a growing anxiety and sense of impending doom there. I will say that I don't know the specifics around it, just that it happens.

 

Spoiler

Wait, what?? Sean Bean?? OMG!

Spoiler

Sorry, couldn't resist. Yeah, that was the one. I don't know if I would have truly saw it coming or not, based on how many twists and turns there are, but yeah...there's a growing anxiety and sense of impending doom there. I will say that I don't know the specifics around it, just that it happens.[/spoile][/quote]

Hehehe... let me know when you get to that. I have a funny fan reaction vid you need to see.

 

OK, I look forward to it. Hopefully, it'll take the sting out a little bit.

 

Alright, we've seen all of them. I'm ready for that now.

 

Ok, first some context.

The guy I'm going to show you is Larry Williams. He has a fairly successful Youtube Channel (Otakuassemble) where he reviews and comments on a lot of entertainment genres. He's a pretty bright guy with a very upbeat personality.

He had never read the books. His subscribers (and he gained a ton off GOT) begged him to stay unspoiled so they can get his honest reactions and views as a fresh viewer each episode. See, we fans of the books are, well, sadistic. We go out of our way to keep people as unspoiled as possible just so we can see their reactions. The book came out in the mid-90s, and yet, as easy as it would have been to spoil several events in the first season, NOBODY did. In this story, that's ruining the fun. We all were shocked. We want to see the newbies get shocked too.

So everyone is watching his weekly reviews. Getting to see the story for the first time - again - through another's eyes. We chuckled at speculations he made that were WAY off, laughed at his reactions to certain events like

Spoiler

Jaime pushing Bran out of the window. "The things I do for love." Larry's reaction was "They KILLED him! They @$!%in killed him!" LOL

And he LOVES Sean Bean in almost everything. So he was geeked about him being on this show. And he loved his character on the show, declaring several time that this guy was his favorite.

Anyway, the long time fans knew episode 9 was going to be the real kick in the teeth. Everyone ahas their story about reading it for the first time. Throwing the book across the room, getting ANGRY, or walking away and swearing they'd never read it again only to come back the next day and finish it off in one sitting, etc. So they begged Larry to stream himself watching episode 9...

You can see where this is going....

Oddly, it wasn't that funny live. You saw him watching in a state of complete disbelief. Then stunned silence long after the credits were rolling. Then he just stands up and walks out of frame, and in the background, you hear something smash. It then cuts off. That isn't the funny vid.

Immediately after he shuts it down, his roommate started recording him. and this is what we get (warning: language):

(deleted)

Among fans of the books and show, it went viral overnight. It was the first I had even bothered to watch any of his vids. It all ends well though. Seems a few other people were watching, and....
(deleted)

 

And of course, there's the obligatory "Hitler finds out..." Homefront clip about it too.

 

And a couple teaser trailers for season 2 starting April 1st:

[spoiler:23fssdb5][youtube:23fssdb5]sBrsM_WlfV8[/youtube:23fssdb5]The voice is that of Stannis Baratheon. King Robert and Renly's brother.[/spoiler:23fssdb5]

[spoiler:23fssdb5][youtube:23fssdb5]rOzXsqoJhtE[/youtube:23fssdb5][/spoiler:23fssdb5]

Can't wait for episode 9 this year.

 

That's really funny. I made my wife watch with me as she's become a really big fan. Really cool that they sent him a signed poster. We watched the Hitler vid afterwards, and it was probably a 6 on the Hitler rant video meter for me. I did laugh when he said 'the guy's a spoiler on two legs' about a certain actor who dies in a lot of his films lol. After that, we watched one of the film parodies for episode 9, and that was pretty dang funny. The LOTR references took it to another level.

I was relieved when it was finally over...episode #9 I mean. Since I knew it was coming, it was good to finally have the anxiety of that pass I guess. April 1st seems really far away...

 

Thanks, I've already seen them though. I scoured around the other day expecting to find a little bit more in the way of sneak peeks.

That's not nice.

 

Oh, my sweet summer child, what do you know of waiting? Waiting is for the readers. Waiting is for the long night when people would go years and years, and children would live and grow old and never see a new page.

(There was a five year wait in between books 3 and 4, and a six year wait for book 5 which finally came out a few months ago) and now we wait for book 6....

 

That's not nice. [/quote:6ldyk1kn]

did you not see the ? It's going to rock... hard. I'm hoping they have the budget to even pull 1/10th of what the book describes off.

 

Oh, my sweet summer child, what do you know of waiting? Waiting is for the readers. Waiting is for the long night when people would go years and years, and children would live and grow old and never see a new page.

(There was a five year wait in between books 3 and 4, and a six year wait for book 5 which finally came out a few months ago) and now we wait for book 6....[/quote:1ydzfv6a]

Ha, well played sir.

I suppose I could get my fix by continuing with book one.

 

did you not see the ? It's going to rock... hard. I'm hoping they have the budget to even pull 1/10th of what the book describes off.[/quote:2jx84akc]
OK, OK. I perceived it as a taunting reference to what happened in season one's episode 9.
Does each HBO season represent one book? So, season one completing AGOT and season two starting ACOK?

 

OK, OK. I perceived it as a taunting reference to what happened in season one's episode 9.
Does each HBO season represent one book? So, season one completing AGOT and season two starting ACOK?[/quote:1id2p9r0]

Yes and no.

Book one was the first season pretty much. And they're trying to keep book 2 encompassed in the second season, but they've said they had to cut elements, or delay them until next season to save time. Knowing some of the the things they didn't film, I don't see how they can cut them completely, so they'll have to add them to next season.

And book 3 (A Storm of Swords) is WAY too big in scope, with far too much happening to fit it into one season, even if they had 14-15 episodes. Rumor / speculation is they'll turn book 3 (with parts left over from book 2 and maybe an element of book 4) into 2 seasons.

The 4th and 5th books are really 2 halves of one very long story. So they'll likely need as much as 3 seasons (assuming 10 episodes each) to do both those books combined.

IOWs, I don't think they have to worry about overrunning the books... yet.

 

Amazon has pre-order sales of the Blue-Rays (and DVDs) for the first season at a drastically cut price. Only $35!

Worth buying for the extras alone.

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-Comp ... 063&sr=1-1