The Screaming Viking

In episode 9 we came to a point that most who’ve read the book were anticipating…the decapitation of Eddard.  Reading through the book the first time, I was a bit surprised they actually killed the character…but that’s what has made this series so gripping for me.  TBH I was a little concerned about the direction HBO has been going with the T.V. series.  There hasn’t been as much character development as was possible in the text, so I though the killing of Eddard would really hurt the series.  He has been in the dungeon now for two episodes and they have taken that time to flesh out some of the characters that will be important going forward.

This episode also is attacking the death of drogo and the screwy events that surround that.  When I read how that whole thing went down…well, it was just really weird.  Even for a fantasy series it struck me as weird.  (there is something in book 2 that hits an equal level of strange as well)  The events that transpire are important though to the development of Dany.  I’m curious how they will play out the last scene in episode 10…I’m really hoping the CGI doesn’t suck too bad.

Touching back on eddard’s death, this series has built to that point very well.  If you go back and watch the episodes you see how the character seems to linger just a little bit longer than you would expect in some places, most notably the kiss between him and the wife when she leaves King’s Landing and when his daughter is “learning to dance”.  It’s those scenes that T.V. is able to capture a little better than text.  Also, when he was being wheeled out, him seeing his daughter clinging to the statue was key..then him looking for her a bit frantically before he is chopped.  Again, that is something that translates a bit better on T.V. than in text.

Overall I think HBO has handled this series much better than I expected after watching the first couple of episodes.  I still think they are severely missing out on the connection between the Starks and the dire wolves.  As I’m reading through the series it’s clear how important and beneficial that connection is.  So far there is no sense of how attached these kids are to the wolves, later when they (I assume) will try to establish some of the weird stuff that goes on between the wolves and kids…how are we going to know that there is a deep connection there?  At this point in the book you got the sense that the wolves were intense protectors for the children, watching the series we don’t get that feeling at all.  Maybe it’s a bit to hard to work with the animals, but I think it’s probably just something they chose to sacrifice for budget (time) reasons.

One last thing that I was really disappointed with and I hope it’s not a reoccurring theme is the lack of fight scenes.  I get that it would be very expensive to stage the fights on the massive scale that they are in the book, but we need some kind of action.  The imp getting knocked out before the first skirmish with “rob’s troops” was a nice way to get around filming it.  It did miss a couple of things that helped the development of the imp character, but over all in the grand scheme of the story the actual fighting was kinda unimportant.  Still, it would have been nice to see some blood and guts.

There is one episode left, and I think they are in a good position to wrap things up for this season.  I wonder if they will change the name of the show for next year to match the book title.  I’m not sure if Martain projected an end to this series.  Currently the wiki has 7 books listed in the series.  I do hope he “ends” the story somewhere.  There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get in to a series and the author keeps on going and going.  I like some sort of finality to a story.  It needs that closure for me to feel like reading it was worth my time.

I got busy last week with basketball camp so I wasn’t able to post my thoughts on Thrones ep 7, this week will combine both episodes.

I’m starting to appreciate what HBO is doing for the story verses what the book has done.  HBO moves really quick and some spots seem choppy to me, but from what I can see in various social networking areas they are holding on to fans.  On twitter I follow some people that you would not expect would be in to this kind of show and they are carving out that time slot on their Sunday to watch…my house must be the only place in the free world that uses tivo for everything.  When the new season for shows I follow is in full swing I don’t even bring up the guide…I very seldom will watch live T.V.  It’s like “power watching t.v.” I guess.  Anyway…

Episodes 7 & 8 can be summed up in pretty much the same post as they both serve the same purpose…they build up a little more story for the excitement that is going to be 9 and 10.  Both shows setup that which is yet to come.  I liked the scene in 7 with Baelish and the whores where he tells the story of him and kat.  That scene added so much to the end when he put the dagger to eddard’s throat…you get a feeling for why he’s doing what he’s doing.  You understand that in the end he has his own interests at heart.  It brings in to question all of the old advise that he gave ned along the way.  A person almost should go back and watch the season again with the “new” information to understand all the nuances about how these people move around on this chess board.

About 1/2 way through episode 8 you have to start feeling sorry for ned.  It’s almost pathetic how “stupid” he is about what’s going on around him.  He seems to operate under the assumption that everyone is interested in ‘doing the right thing’ like he is.  All the people around him are playing this long drawn out chess match to best position themselves to reach their own goals…and this poor guy comes barreling in under the banner of “good” only to get slaughtered by the vipers.  It doesn’t occur to him that someone is giving him less than the truth or that their “word” won’t mean anything when steels starts flying.  You hope that the Starks can catch up to the southerners and their games.

I wasn’t impressed with the rape and pillage scene in ep 8.  It was far more graphic in my mind than what they were able to show on even HBO.  I think that’s my whole problem with the dothraki…I picture their culture so violent and brutal that it just can’t be shown to my satisfaction on HBO.  It’s good to see the Kaleeshi step in to her role. Her failure to embrace the brutality of their culture, I think, will ultimately cost her.  Does anyone else question the motives of the witch doctor treating drogo?  In the book I didn’t give it much thought…but watching it on the screen it seemed like a really stupid thing to allow her to treat Drogo’s wound.  Not sure why that didn’t stand out more to me in print.

Another thing I’m not happy with in the show compared to the book is how old the boys look.  Rob is suppose to be about 15ish, on screen he looks more like mid 20′s.  The other lords treat him like he is a boy, but he doesn’t look the part.  I would have liked to see a much younger actor in that role.  Jon, I think, looks about right, Joffery looks about right…which should be the same age as Rob I think?  Why was Rob chosen to be played by such an old looking actor?

I don’t remember arya killing someone during her escape…but it’s possible I overlooked it.  Come to think of it, there have been several things I don’t remember in the book that is showing up on screen.  Some of it helps build the background, but some of it doesn’t seem necessary.  Trust in HBO though, they are selling this show.  The ratings seem to be right around the 2.5 million per episode mark.  They go a little over 3 million for Sunday once you figure in the repeats.

I read someone in a review posted a quick note about how they think T.V. shows like this are eclipsing movies.  I can see that as far as character development is concerned.  It seems rather obvious.  With new ways to deliver this content (box sets, paid downloads…etc) people like HBO that are willing to put in time and money are able to reap some reward for their effort.  I got all the movie channels for free for 3 months with my direct tv subscription.  I’m going to be holding on to HBO, but the rest of them can be cancelled.  No other network is coming close to holding my attention with their original series like HBO and in the end, that’s what it takes to get my dollar.

Game of Thrones episode 6 I found to be kind of…blah.  I found it to be by far the least interesting episode of the lot.  The crowning was interesting…but other than that I just didn’t find it all that good.  I don’t have much to say really…eh, maybe I wasn’t all that in to the show last night.

Finally caught episode 5 of thrones last night.  It was probably the best episode so far.  It had some good drama, character development, sex and action.  Again though, one of the scenes I looked forward to from the book was a bit short changed.

I like how they have built up the Ned Stark character.  I think you really get a feel for his uncompromising sense of morality.  He’ll kill, go to war but he has a sense of his own morals behind why he does it and there are certain lines he won’t cross.  He calls the king on his B.S. to a point, and in essance gives him the finger when he doesn’t agree with him.  No one wanted to tell Robert he couldn’t joust, but Ned marched in there hell bent on keeping him out of the competition….even telling him he was too fat for his armor.

The mountain killing his horse was cool, but the editing was kinda poor.  It did a good job of showing him hacking off the head of the horse, but when it cut back to the horse falling and all that it didn’t look like it was cut at all.  Obviously this is a very challenging scene to pull off, but I didn’t think they did it that well.  Did the hound kneel knowing he wouldn’t be hit by the mountain’s swing? or was he showing obedience to the crown?  You know that they are brothers, but there is no way the hound could know the mountain would stop.  Either way, that was a pretty cool scene.  I think they did a good job showing how massive this guy is, and the kind of street brawler/thug he is.  The character is what I expected.  What about the hound?  There are glimpses of humanity in him that I didn’t get a sense of until later in the series.  I’m sure that’s necessary for the abbreviated time they have for character development.

Speaking of characters…I think HBO has done a really good job of casting the characters.  While I feel they have glossed over some points and rushed things along…the characters themselves “feel” about like I would expect them too, with the exception of Drogo.  I don’t think they made him out to be the savage as much as I had pictured in my head.  While HBO has done a decent job of developing the characters…Martian did so much better in print.   I don’t think I’ve read another fantasy writer do as much character development that I didn’t find excruciatingly boring.  Martian has done it in such a way that it’s very interesting and makes it difficult to put the book (my phone) down for the evening.

Lysa’s keep (I can’t remember the name of the place) was a scene I was really looking forward to…and it didn’t pay off.  The only thing said in the show about it was that it is “impregnable” (and a nice bit of dialogue followed, “gimme 10 men and climbing spikes…I’ll impregnate the bitch”).  The book goes in to great detail about the massive undertaking it is to make it up to the castle.  It’s a days travel just to get from the bottom of the mountain up in to the thing.  I have no idea if, in later books, the impenetrability of this place will be key or not…but it did help to put an exclamation point on how far off the deep end Lysa has gone.  ”I want to see him fly!”  Really meant something…like they were above the clouds in this place.  I was also disappointed that there was no delving into the relationship between the dwarf and the sell sword.  It will be worked on a bit at the castle…it has to be, but it started on the road to the castle.

The boy sucking on his mother’s breast was kind of disturbing to me.  I knew it was there…and that it was coming but that was one aspect of the book that I glossed over in print, but on the screen it made much more of an impact.  I didn’t like it.  I joked to a buddy that it was “kiddie pr0n”.  I really have no idea what the laws are governing that sort of thing.

The end scene with Ned and Jamie was pulled off -really- well IMO.  Jamie stabbing that dude through the eye was gruesome and cool all at the same time…then his dance with Ned was orchestrated nicely.  The range of feelings the viewer could got (or at least I did) while they were going back and forth really surprised me.  When it starts there is almost a panic in Ned’s eyes and a cold calm in Jamie’s…as it progresses you see that switch, it’s as if Ned finally believes he can take him and Jamie gets worried…then of course…Ned is stuck in the leg.  I would have liked to see Jamie decapitate the guard instead of just hitting him.  I don’t remember how that played out in print.  I know the fight scene was quite a bit different, but stuff like that has to change a little bit to even be shown on T.V.  You can’t really show off fighting on horse back too much.

I’m pretty stoked up for next week.  ”A golden crown” seems to indicate the playing out of a scene that I’ve been anticipating.  I’m very curious to see how they pull it off…I’ve got an image in my head of how it went down…and I’m hoping the on screen version doesn’t disappoint.

From what I’ve read online, the viewer numbers for Thrones have been going up episode to episode.  I like hearing that.  While it’s not necessarily what I had hoped for compared to the text, it is an entertaining series.  I’m hoping the numbers are strong enough to give it a five year’ish run.  It would be nice if it could run out to the end of the text series…but we don’t want to see Martian put in a position where he is rushing to push out a book to keep ahead of the show.  I don’t want to see any of that amazing writing rushed.  Maybe they have a plan and if the series is renewed for a 3rd season and beyond (HBO already picked up a 2nd) things wouldn’t be rushed.  Book #5 is slated for a July 12 2k11 release and there are 2 more planned after that.  I’m hoping he ends the series, I don’t like open ended stories…when I read through a book or even a series of books I like there to be some sort of conclusion or wrap up to everything.