A Game of Thrones (contains spoilers)

[Casperian]

Truth is this season will most likely be the only solid season.  I unlike some, do not believe this series of novels is very good.  Game of Thrones, the 1st book is excellent, the other 3 are total crap.  Nothing happens, really, nothing happens, most of the novels involve people traversing rivers and that is the exciting part.  3000 pages latter I was so infuriated in wasting a week on this series I swore I would not care one bit about the final 1000 pages.

People compare Martin to Tolkien and that is an insult to Tolkien.  What Martin does in 4000 pages, Tolkien does in a 1000 and with more style, writing ability and story development.   Martin just wastes paper and nothing is ever solved except for and thorough understanding that Martin has some deep emotional problems with his sister.

Martin finally gets around to answer questions posed in the 1st 100 pages of Game of Thrones, but after he has completely bored you to sleep with pages of descriptions about terrible food, banners and uncomfortable sex conversation and then these answers are just a throw in.  Joffrey?  really he was the master planner, Martin?  Ok, if you say so.  Martin has a tendency to talk and talk about lore, food, wine, etc. and then magically answer important questions in a page leaving the reader wondering.

If you haven't started the books, don't, save yourself some time.  I am sure that the Hollywood Screenwriters will have to completely overhaul Storm of Swords and Feast of Crows so that average viewers wont fall asleep halfway through each.

If you want a good read, this series is NOT the answer.  Its crap drama for drama's sake.  Really there is nothing substantial after the first book that would ever make me recommend it to others unless I wanted to torture them.  Read Brooks or Tolkien, they do this type of novel way better.

People who praise these novels are probably the same people who thought "Entourage" is a good show.  

I find the fact that you criticize Martin for spending too much time on pointless descriptions, and then name Tolkien as an example of "how it´s done" pretty confusing. Tolkien describes every flower Frodo comes across, and it´s a long way to Modor.
Aside from the Prose, Martin beats Tolkien in pretty much every conceivable way as a fantasy author, in my opinion. Tolkien was just the first. Did you really enjoy the chapter of Tom Bobadil, for example, or the Deus Ex Machina solution with the giant eagles? How about all the stuff in the Hobbit with the three trolls, Bron etc., which is all pretty much filler until they finally reach Smaug?

You got in a fight with three dudes? No one is going to win a 3 on 1 fight.

Please...

Not to bore you with a long story about my adolescence, but should you ever face three attackers at once, just ask yourself: "What would Colt Seavers do?"

[mgent]

So the Khaleesi's brother wasn't really a dragon/her brother?

Having not read any of the books it took a lot of brain power to watch the show/remember info revealed in a previous episode.  I had to constantly look up information to get all the names and places and sigils correct in my head.  It made each episode go really slow but all in all I didn't mind my decision to watch the first season before getting started on the books.

He was truly her brother, but the whole "dragon" thing is supposed to mean that he wasn't really worthy of the title of "blood of the dragon" because he was whiny, sniveling, and ultimately weak.

But the chick wasn't hurt by heat.  And she said fire can't kill a dragon.

Right.  She's got something weird going on with her in that regard, which isn't entirely explained by that point in the book, either.  However, there is enough background on the Targaryens revealed that it's clear it isn't normal for a Targaryen to be impervious to heat -- at one point there's reference to a Targaryen in the past who killed himself by swallowing a flammable substance in the belief it would allow him to breathe fire.

From what I've read so far it seems that some members of the great houses have a certain affinity with their banner animals (to varying degrees), but none of them is literally that animal, though at times they may seem to exhibit some of the characteristics or have a supernaturally strong connection to them (e.g. impervious to heat / flame, able to command / read the minds of wolves).

Just because somebody does not have that sort of affinity, though, doesn't mean they are actually a true member of that family.

I kinda thought he was just trying to show off when the girl in the tub asked him if there was dragon blood in his veins (thus an inherited immunity) and he said "It's a possibility."  I figured I wouldn't rule anything out, especially since their family apparently survived extended inbreeding.

That and what made the blonde think to put the egg in the fire and then pick it up?  I figured she at least was going on the hunch that it was a family myth (but even if it wasn't, wouldn't she have at least gotten close enough to fire before to realize it doesn't burn her?)  Plus with the "fire can't kill a dragon" I thought it was just too many hints (along with the fact that there was already a Edited for profanity.  Please do not do it again.).  Thanks for filling me in without spoiling anything though.

[Redz]

Speaking of Lord of the Rings I got my 8 year old daughter the trilogy plus the Hobbit books.  She started on the Hobbit today.  I think she'll enjoy that one more than the others at this point.  Much more whimsical than the Lord of the Rings books.

[TheLegendaryClub]

I'm always a little surprised when I see Game of Thrones/ASOIAF referred to as "boy fiction." I get that a lot of the content panders to the male crowd, but I personally know more female fans of the series than male. And, as a girl myself, I have to give Martin props for writing a good range of female characters with complex psychologies. They each represent different methods of coping with or subverting gender roles in their society, present some interesting foils (Catelyn and Cersei), and I will champion Sansa until the end of my days as the only Stark who has an inkling about how the Game is played. The perception that fantasy is for boys unless written by a woman is just wrong--Martin's legions of female readers will attest to that.

As for Martin-Tolkien comparisons, I think it's more accurate to say that Martin's brand of fantasy is a reaction against the Tolkinian. He takes all of the tropes that Tolkien made famous and deliberately turns them on their head. That's why this series was so refreshing to the genre as a whole. There have been so many Tolkien imitations and ripoffs (Terry Brooks, I'm glaring in your direction), and what Martin did was toss the accepted fantasy model out the window and write a drama that questions whether those standard, romantic tropes could ever be sustainable in a setting that operates closer to our reality.

The two authors take such divergent approaches that they're hardly even comparable, at least for me. The only thing they have in common is the genre and the substantial page count.

[indeedproceed]

an interesting account. id counter that a soap opera for men can appeal to some women as much as 'chick flicks' (or twilight) can appeal to some men.

my point was that tolkien is modern literature, while martin is not...but that does not make it any less an incredibly interesting and complex fiction. and trust me...i know bad fantasy. martin is far from that.

[TheLegendaryClub]

an interesting account. id counter that a soap opera for men can appeal to some women as much as 'chick flicks' (or twilight) can appeal to some men.

my point was that tolkien is modern literature, while martin is not...but that does not make it any less an incredibly interesting and complex fiction. and trust me...i know bad fantasy. martin is far from that.

I see what you're saying, but my take is that there's no need to assign gender qualifiers to something that can appeal equally to both sexes.

I agree that Tolkien is literature. The depth of his linguistics and adherence to medieval traditions is staggering. For me, that's what sets him at a level above Martin. You can debate the virtues of each of their characters, pacing, plot, etc. But Tolkien's dedication to the craft and scholarly dimension of writing itself are what make his works Literature with a capital L.

[Casperian]

As for Martin-Tolkien comparisons, I think it's more accurate to say that Martin's brand of fantasy is a reaction against the Tolkinian. He takes all of the tropes that Tolkien made famous and deliberately turns them on their head. That's why this series was so refreshing to the genre as a whole. There have been so many Tolkien imitations and ripoffs (Terry Brooks, I'm glaring in your direction), and what Martin did was toss the accepted fantasy model out the window and write a drama that questions whether those standard, romantic tropes could ever be sustainable in a setting that operates closer to our reality.

The two authors take such divergent approaches that they're hardly even comparable, at least for me. The only thing they have in common is the genre and the substantial page count.

Well said, and I have to agree. TP

I would add that it´s normal to compare any fantasy to Tolkien´s work, since he´s widely recognized as the reference in modern fantasy, and has been for several decades.

[Moranis]

Pretty solid season.  Can't wait until next year.  Wife and I actually picked up the first book today.  I will probably start reading the whole series and have it done by next season of the HBO show.

[Redz]

Pretty solid season.  Can't wait until next year.  Wife and I actually picked up the first book today.  I will probably start reading the whole series and have it done by next season of the HBO show.

Was this the last one?

Loved the baby dragons!

[nickagneta]

Pretty solid season.  Can't wait until next year.  Wife and I actually picked up the first book today.  I will probably start reading the whole series and have it done by next season of the HBO show.

Was this the last one?

Loved the baby dragons!

Yes sir. That how book one ended

[PosImpos]

Pretty solid rendering of the book's last act.  I was a little bit surprised by how much of Daenarys' naked body they showed, but I guess it's HBO.  Heh.

The dragons were a little underwhelming.  I was disappointed they weren't literally sucking at her breasts as they were in the book.  I suppose they'll become more impressive later.

[Redz]

Pretty solid season.  Can't wait until next year.  Wife and I actually picked up the first book today.  I will probably start reading the whole series and have it done by next season of the HBO show.

Was this the last one?

Loved the baby dragons!

Yes sir. That how book one ended

darnit!  They all blend together a bit for me.

[Moranis]

From what I've gathered is HBO had a very expensive show and went a little cheap on the big budget stuff because it wasn't sure how popular it would be and if it is going to be a money maker.  I imagine if season 1 was successful (especially in DVD sales), season 2 will do a bit better job on the CGI stuff and make it more like the books.  Now granted I have not read the books, but that is the general impression I've gathered from the comments here and the articles I've read.

EDIT: rom an EW.com story with the creators of the tv show

Some fans were bummed they didn’t see anything from the battles, even though they’re not very detailed in the book either. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say there’s a big battle in the second book. Will you be able to show that?
DB: There was never much discussion of shooting The Battle of Whispering Wood [Robb vs. Jaime's army]. We did have plans to show Tyrion marching into battle behind The Mountain. We had a whole way we wanted to shoot it following Tyrion’s eye level as The Mountain is just (cutting soldiers down). Ultimately we had to make some really tough decisions. We ran out of time to shoot it properly and we much rather have a great scene with our characters than a crappy version of the battle. We want to have some great battles, we’re working very hard to have great battles in season two. We’d like to have more direwolves too.
DW: There’s so many things we can do so much better than films. But there are a few things like battles and creatures where there’s a brute force financial component to doing those well, and it involves being very creative and selective about how you show those things to make them achievable. We don’t want them to look like a Playstation 2 game, we want it to look at the same level [of quality] as the rest of the show.

 

[drza44]

All in all, that was a very satisfying first season.  When I first heard that they were going to set AGoT to film I was worried, because so much of the book is character development from their POV (allowing thoughts and emotions) that I didn't see how they could replicate on the screen.  When I heard that it would be a series instead of a movie I was more encouraged, because that gave them 10 hours to work with instead of 2, but I still wasn't sure what to expect.

All told, I think they did it very well.  It was very well cast from top-to-bottom, they did a good job of conveying both the feel of the story as well as the more generatl character development of the individuals, and they did a much better job of sticking to the events in the book than I expected.  And best of all, my wife (who is NOT into reading sci fi/fantasy) sat down and watched it with me, and is actually really into the story now.  That was quite a bonus for me.

[mgent]

Pretty solid season.  Can't wait until next year.  Wife and I actually picked up the first book today.  I will probably start reading the whole series and have it done by next season of the HBO show.

Was this the last one?

Loved the baby dragons!

Yeah I had a pretty strong hunch that those things were gonna hatch at one point in one of the books/seasons.  Didn't expect the horse/barbarian dude to die though.

Does anyone else think 10 episode seasons should be a crime?  Seems like a lot of shows are going that way nowadays.  Each good show should have at least 20-24.