Monday, February 10, 2014

First thoughts on the Game of Thrones special

You find the 15-minute-video here. Just some random thoughts. Spoilers ahead.

- Holy crap, Arya's quote about nothing! They are really setting up the Braavos storyline, aren't they?
- Holy crap, that money-shot of Meereen! The city looks freakingly awesome. The pyramides, the Harpy...man! Nailed it.
- Brienne bites someone's ear off and spits it in his face? Some storylines got seriously mixed up. Whose will it be? Can't be anyone in King's Landing, I guess, so I expect her journey into the countryside from AFFC to start in season 4.
- Oberyn is build up intentionally as a long-term major character. Will be a nice surprise for the Unsullied.
- Man, Bran looks OLD now. The clear disadvantage of child-actors. Isaac Hempstead-Wright is aging much more visibly than any of the others so far.
- Jaime's part in everything gets beefed up a bit, but as it seems to me with minor consequences for the general plot.
- Why did Ramsay have all these wounds on his body? Sado-Masochism?
- The Hound is also portrayed as a major character, so no Braavos this season for Arya, instead beefed up Riverlands.
- Jon and Sam interactions will become interesting. Love Kit Harrington complaining he doesn't get badass quotes. Yeah, that's Jon Snow in a nutshell.
- Hazzeah bites the dust in this season. Episode 10?
-  So excited about this!

15 comments:

  1. What about that money shot of a grown up drogon? Though it seemed to me like he will murder an adult instead of a child because of that scene on the preview, but we shall see.

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    1. I'm pretty sure that's a different scene, maybe where they try to capture him. The child-killing is probably gonna be off-screen, that way the viewers can share Dany's shock.

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    2. Yeah I though of that as well, but you know, sometimes they alter some scenes from the book, I reckoned that might be one of then (to spare critics from overly sensitive viers and whatnot)

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  2. "Man, Bran looks OLD now. The clear disadvantage of child-actors. Isaac Hempstead-Wright is aging much more visibly than any of the others so far."

    Is this a disadvantage? Shouldn't he be aging as the series goes on, more or less in real time?

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    1. Unfortunately, the series covers four years, the story oneandahalf. :)

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  3. Brienne's laugh is the best part of the whole thing! And that's against some pretty great stuff. Looking forward to the season and I'm actually glad there's going to be more room for Jaime. He'll fit in well with the events in KL, I think, and it will be really great to have the different Lannisters together. I actually prefer it this way (well, so far, hopefully they play it well).

    -rob

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  4. can we expect a Boiled Leather Audio Hour discussing this preview?
    Specifically, certain things revealed here may suggest they are speeding up certain storylines, which may mean something down the line with regards to show catching up to books for example)

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    1. We haven't discussed it yet, but I would tend to no. Not really enough in there, I guess.

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  5. I got the impression Ramsey had someone else's blood on him. I got the implication he had just finished a "hunt."

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    1. I believe they are going to devode Theons storyline this year with filler material, namely Kyra's attempted escape or something borrowing from that backstage material. But personally I am much more excited to know what the hell they re thinking of assigning to Asha or Yara or whatever! (I bet she wonders around doing nothing and ends up being capture by the Baratheon everyone loves to hate)

      http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Kyra

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    2. Kyra's scaping wouldn't be filler. It really happens in the book, and it would serve the purpose of showing how much of a twisted sadistic bastard Ramsay is.
      About Yara, if your bet is she wonders around doing nothing (I doubt it) why the excitement?

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  6. I like that they're showing Jaime and Tyrion's relationship more onscreen. Because they don't have access to the inner monologues and memories of the books, Jaime and Tyrion's relationship hasn't really been explored much in the show beyond those couple of scenes they had together in the pilot. The Purple Wedding looks incredible, I'm glad they're staging it outside.

    I just want to know what on earth was going on with Bran's hair? I don't think it's really that much of a problem that the kids are ageing at a faster rate than the books, they haven't really acknowledged how much time passes in the show, and I've kind of learned to just ignore the weird relationship with time this show sometimes has.

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  7. Gwendoline's comment about the ear threw me off, too. My first instinct was that it was referring to Vargo Hoat/Locke and her attempted rape at Harrenhal, as in the books, but I feel like that wasn't actually in the show. Maybe she gets attacked in KL this season?

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  8. Don't know if it was mentioned, but the scene where jaime is sparring / training doesn't look like it's with Ilyn Payne, I got the impression it looked like Brom, it's an interesting way of increasing his on-screen time and will surely provide some funny dialogue between him and Jaime.....or maybe I'm just seeing things.

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  9. Everything you said, I agree with, especially the first thing. I kinda like what they did with Arya, the fact that the character's been aged up gives her much more room also for intellectual growth. Very interesting.

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