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Game of Thrones, Season 1

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."
── Cersei Lannister


Game of Thrones (GoT) is a 10-episode mini-series based on the first book of the fantasy novel series, A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin. Set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, GoT revolves around the politics and intrigue surrounding the Iron Throne.

Truly, the best way to adapt a book and give it justice is to turn it into a mini-series, rather than a movie. And with so much gore and sex, this is right up HBO's alley.

One of the biggest changes here are the characters' ages, which are all significantly older than their literary counterparts. I am all for it as Danaerys, for example, is 14 years old in the book. That would make all her nude and sex scenes (particularly the dubious consent ones, haha) more than a little awkward for me.

The costumes were just absolutely beautifully done. It distracts me sometimes, but that's just the cosplayer in me talking. My favourites were the armor worn by Tywin Lannister and the gowns worn by the ladies at The Eyrie court (despite my disgust for the Arryns).

A lot of fans complained about the casting when it was announced, particularly Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon as he had mostly been in comedies prior to this. But I was pleasantly surprised by Addy. Who knew he could pull off such a dramatic role, and do it so well?

And then there's Jason Momoa.


Mmm, boy. Where do I even begin? To be fair, I was a big Dany  Drogo fan from the book before I discovered the gloriousness that is Jason Momoa.

My only qualms─and they are pretty minor─are:

One, the lack of emphasis on the more supernatural aspects of the GoT universe. With all the knights and lords and ladies, it's easy to to think it's just medieval England and not on a land where there once were dragons. They introduce the supernatural elements in the first episode, then pretty much forget about it and suddenly pop up again around Episode 8.

Two, I just felt there was too much sex. Granted, the book has a lot of sex, too, but this felt more like the directors and producers trying to spice up a really long, rather unexciting bit of dialogue by having it done during a sex scene so people don't get bored.

Now that the season has ended and they don't start shooting season two 'til July, I have nothing to look forward to on Mondays to make them seem a little less blue. To fill the void, I'm going to finish reading the second half of A Feast of Crows, which I hope to finish before A Dance with Dragons comes out next week.

4 comments :

Do you follow GRRM's Wordpress blog? Hehe.

Teluete said...

He has a wordpress too? I look at his livejournal from time to time. :P

Ay, LJ nga yata 'yun. Hehe.

Anonymous said...

This was a great review of the first season, it’s good to hear the perspective of someone that has read the books and still enjoys the show. Dany and Drogo were my favorite part of the first season as well, I just wish they would have spent a little more time on them, it seemed like you said they wanted us to see them as sex toys and not as part of the more intriguing story that develops over the throne. I haven’t read the books, when I saw the series was coming out I decided I would wait until the entire series had finished, and then go back and read the books so I could enjoy both without the I can’t believe they left this out or they did something different. I still needed a refresher of season 1 before Sunday though, so I rented the DVD of season 1 on my blockbuster @home plan. I had them 48 hours after I ordered them last week, and finally sat down yesterday to start watching the episodes and extras. Unfortunately my GoT marathon got cut short half way through since I had to go work at DISH, but hey you have to work right? I am just glad that I decided to get the blockbuster @home pack, it has come in handy not only for streaming.

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