HBO greenlights A Game of Thrones pilot!

[keg in kc]

EDIT: Changed the original header to mark this as the thread where spoilers are allowed (but not necessarily recommended...). Created a new, spoiler-free thread for Ice and Fire virgins...


This is awesome...

Huge, Huge News

Nov. 11th, 2008 at 10:29 PM

HBO has given the production order.

They will be filming the pilot episode of A GAME OF THRONES.

It's just the pilot so far. They'll need to see that before they decide whether to proceed with a full season's episodes. So let's all hope the pilot will kick serious ass.

It should. David Benioff and Dan Weiss did a terrific job with the script. And yes, all of you can relax, it's very faithful. Dan and David will be the executive producers for the pilot and (we hope) the eventual series.

More details when I have 'em. The news is very fresh. HBO just issued their own press release, which should be up on their website soon, if it's not there already.

Winter is coming to HBO. Hot damn.

[keg in kc]

I don't usually do the point-by-point thing, but it might help...

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I was a little confused and off-put in the beginning with the guys outside the wall, the guy who saw the bodies in the circle and was beheaded...I didn't quite catch or understand what was going on with all of that.

Alright, what's going on in the prologue is that a party of scouts is going beyond The Wall (that's what they call the huge ice wall) to scout the Wildlings, folks who live beyond it. The one scout finds a Wildling camp, but they're all dead and arranged in a bizarre way. He takes his fellows back to the camp and the bodies are gone, as you saw. They came back, of course, and as he mentioned when Ned executed him (it's the same dude), that marks the return an ancient undead enemy that hasn't been seen for thousands of years.

If I had to guess, I would say that the Night's Watch (those are the dude's in black...) will get more screen time in the next episode or two and it will start to make more sense...

I missed important details, as I didn't realize that whatshisname who was banging the King's wife was actually his sister....that makes a difference. I didn't understand that the blond(with the rockin' body) was a minor....That is a little more than offputting.

Well, she's not really a minor if you look at it from the standpoint of where the story is taking place. It's an arranged marriage and she's an appropriate age for that time/place.

I'm curious as to the significance of the dire wolf, but it was obvious that it was big medicine.

I don't remember how clear they made this in the premiere, but the dire wolf is the Stark's house sigil, so connect that with the number of pups found and it does seem like some big medicine.

Brideowanian walked into the room as the kid was in the window at the end.....and acted like she'd just seen a car crash. I verbally said "holy shit"....as I thought that kid was going to be a major character...like the next king or something.

I better leave that one alone for now.

I'll watch it again, but I can already tell I'm not going to know who is who for a while.

Yeah, that may at times be a problem even for people who are familiar with the books.

As long as it keeps entertaining, I'll keep watching. If it gets too much into dragons and monsters, it'll probably lose me.

I think the first episode's pretty representative of the amount of dragons and monsters (well, if you don't count people as monsters...). They're there, but in the world the story takes place at the time we're watching, magic and monsters are all things of the distant past. So you're going to get a lot more politics (and war) than you are magic and mysticism. But there will be some.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Huffmeister

Yeah, I just always pictured her as more of a spoiled brat that is used to scheming to get her way. But it's only the first episode, so I may change my opinion of her performance as we see more.

Oh wow. I don't picture Cersei like that at all. She's like Lady Macbeth to me. She's a man trapped in a woman's body, so she uses what she has (sex and wits) to get and keep power.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Oh wow. I don't picture Cersei like that at all. She's like Lady Macbeth to me. She's a man trapped in a woman's body, so she uses what she has (sex and wits) to get and keep power.

That's pretty much how I've seen her as well.

She's her father's daughter. Although we haven't met him yet, have we.

[Huffmeister]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Oh wow. I don't picture Cersei like that at all. She's like Lady Macbeth to me. She's a man trapped in a woman's body, so she uses what she has (sex and wits) to get and keep power.

I agree. I guess by 'spoiled brat' I meant that she seemed to have a lot more outward arrogance. But again, it's early in the series, so that may change (especially once we see her on her home turf). Also, a lot of my impression of her from the book may have been formed by internal thoughts that weren't expressed in dialog.

[duncan_idaho]

For those wondering about the significance of the direwolf... has the season thing been explained yet? In this series, the seasons don't change based on the year. A season lasts for years, rather than months. For instance, Arya is a Child of Summer - it has been summer her entire life.

Seeing the direwolf south of the Wall is a sign that Winter is Coming. For a Lord Stark, this is what you dread/prepare for. The Warden of the North knows that when winter comes, the Northmen shoulder the biggest burden.

Anyway, lots of good discussion on this thread My favorites...

1) Jon Snow. Brave, strong, smart, compassionate. Just all-around awesome.
2) Tyrion. I saw someone say that Cersei is her father's daughter... I would say that Tyrion actually is the closest thing to a "chip off the block" that Old Man Lannister has. Too bad he hates his son the dwarf.
3) Dany. She's more than the 15-year-old who gets "sold" for an army by her creepy brother.
4) Eddard Stark. Gotta love Ned...
5) Sandor Clegane. Who let the Hound out?

Least Favorites...

1) Cersei Lannister. Evil. Knieving. And WAY oversells her abilities as a leader.
2) Joffrey Baratheon. He's a bad seed. Not sure if he gets it from mom or dad...
3) Sansa Stark. By far my least favorite Stark. Naive. Moon-eyed. Foolish. Dumb. Meddling. What's to like?
4) Stannis Baratheon. Stubborn, pig-headed, misguided.

I have to stop there, lest I get well beyond AGOT and into the awesomeness that is A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords.

[Huffmeister]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

4) Stannis Baratheon. Stubborn, pig-headed, misguided.

I have to stop there, lest I get well beyond AGOT and into the awesomeness that is A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords.

I think you just did

[NewChief]

I think that one of the reasons I didn't like the last book was how much it focused on the Stannis, Sansa, Brienne, Arianne, and Drowned Prophet plotlines. Those are all plotlines (and characters) that I don't really enjoy.

I think it was a mistake for GRRM to veer so far afield from the "core" characters in that book. He should have at least interspersed a little Tyrion or Jon Snow in there to keep us going.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by NewChief

I think that one of the reasons I didn't like the last book was how much it focused on the Stannis, Sansa, Brienne, Arianne, and Drowned Prophet plotlines. Those are all plotlines (and characters) that I don't really enjoy.

I think it was a mistake for GRRM to veer so far afield from the "core" characters in that book. He should have at least interspersed a little Tyrion or Jon Snow in there to keep us going.

Agree. Feast is disappointing in its lack of anything from the three main characters...

[keg in kc]

Well, fortunately all the characters you missed are the ones in Dance.

[underEJ]

I made an assumption that the titles had the appropriate house sigil next to the actor name, but the second time I watched it, I quickly tried to match names and there are a few that don't line up. Emilia Clarke plays Dany but her name is next to a Lannister lion, Sophie Turner plays Sansa but her name is next to a Targaryen dragon, and Ser Jorah has a Lannister lion. All the others match up. A little strange.

[BigRedChief]

Another noob. Never read the books. No prior knowledge of the characters. I was confused on who was who. The opening wasn't tied into anything else in the show. Definitely pushed the envelope. I'm assuming the kid dying is a major story line.

[DJ's left nut]

Never read the books, damn good show (almost too much boob, a little embarrassed to recommend it to others).

Can I get some confirmation that Stark, if not a 'good guy' per se, is at least a likeable figure? Sean Bean is pretty much a badass even when he's evil (Travelian in Goldeneye) or a flawed hero (Lord of the Rings).

I can't bring myself to dislike the guy.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Another noob. Never read the books. No prior knowledge of the characters. I was confused on who was who. The opening wasn't tied into anything else in the show. Definitely pushed the envelope. I'm assuming the kid dying is a major story line.

Actually... the opening scene was the prologue from the novel. The viewpoint character in the prologue has died in each of the novels. No real significance other than "Holy crap, the White Walkers walk again..."

It becomes a much bigger deal later...

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Never read the books, damn good show (almost too much boob, a little embarrassed to recommend it to others).

Can I get some confirmation that Stark, if not a 'good guy' per se, is at least a likeable figure? Sean Bean is pretty much a badass even when he's evil (Travelian in Goldeneye) or a flawed hero (Lord of the Rings).

I can't bring myself to dislike the guy.

Ned Stark is, in my opinion, by far the most honorable "good" character in the entire series.

Jon Snow is similar, but Ned shaped him...

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Never read the books, damn good show (almost too much boob, a little embarrassed to recommend it to others).

Can I get some confirmation that Stark, if not a 'good guy' per se, is at least a likeable figure? Sean Bean is pretty much a badass even when he's evil (Travelian in Goldeneye) or a flawed hero (Lord of the Rings).

I can't bring myself to dislike the guy.

In the span of the four novels thus far, there are very few characters that are purely good or purely evil. Ned is one of those that is purely good. Most other characters travel back and forth in the gray area between good and evil, and almost always have very good reasons to do what they do, whether the acts be good or evil. That is one big reason why the books are so damn good.