A Song of Ice and Fire: The pilot is so close you can taste the incest.

Zedar

joshofalltrades wrote: »

Spoiler:

Arya's marksmanship and seeming ability to go from stitching to planting a bullseye after equipping herself with bow and arrow in between the time it took Bran to make two shots

Kind of annoyed me.

This annoyed me too.

Spoiler:

It's supposed to be a big deal later on when she manages to get her fathers approval to train with weapons, so showing her apparently a master archer right at the start will lessen the impact of this I think.

Still overall I'm very impressed. They made some changes to the details of what happens (especially in the prologue), but they managed to do it without changing the "feel" of what happened. I understand there is no room to tell the fully story of Royce and co and liked the way the condensed it into essentially a different story that conveys the same message.

Xeddicus

Not how I see it:

Spoiler:

Arya starting training was important in the grand scheme, but fairly "And now Arya is doing something else tom-boy like." as it occurred. It wasn't anything OMG WOW at the time and still isn't as an isolated event. Least that's how I recall it, shrug.

Organichu

arya needs to be uglier

Dalboz

Anyone else started playing on Win the Throne? While it mainly a sweepstakes, there are some interesting little games on there, as well as the personality quiz to align you with a specific House. Eh, it's a good diversion for a few minutes.

I'm with Stark, of course.

Tofystedeth

Seriously, one of the minigames is war? Laaazy.

Dalboz

Yeah, like I said, a nice diversion for a few minutes. It's basically War, Rock/Paper/Scissors, jigsaw puzzle, and the like. The one that's kicking my butt is the Direwolves vs. Rabbit game on Expert mode. I mean, I know I've got a bit of a migraine right now so I'm not at my best, but jeez... I'm thinking that I must be missing some basic move or function somewhere.

Apothe0sis

Organichu wrote: »

arya needs to be uglier

But Arya isn't ugly, despite the teasing heaped upon her by Jeyne and Sansa.

Part of her tragedy is that she will grow to be beautiful, like Lyanna, but is constantly overshadowed by Sansa who is conventionally beautiful and dutiful in her observance of what is expected of a lady.

Arya's "problem" is that faced with Sansa's superior attitude and her own preference for Tom-Boyish activities she's ibfernalised the idea that she is ugly and exacerbates this by not caring and dressing like a stablehand.

Tofystedeth

Dalboz wrote: »

Yeah, like I said, a nice diversion for a few minutes. It's basically War, Rock/Paper/Scissors, jigsaw puzzle, and the like. The one that's kicking my butt is the Direwolves vs. Rabbit game on Expert mode. I mean, I know I've got a bit of a migraine right now so I'm not at my best, but jeez... I'm thinking that I must be missing some basic move or function somewhere.

Well, yeah, but at least those others are games. War is just, you have been randomly dealt these cards. Now lay them down to see how it turns out. Having a "deal card" button is pointless since there's nothing you can do to affect the game. It can't really be "played".

Fizban140

Apothe0sis wrote: »

Organichu wrote: »

arya needs to be uglier

But Arya isn't ugly, despite the teasing heaped upon her by Jeyne and Sansa.

Part of her tragedy is that she will grow to be beautiful, like Lyanna, but is constantly overshadowed by Sansa who is conventionally beautiful and dutiful in her observance of what is expected of a lady.

Arya's "problem" is that faced with Sansa's superior attitude and her own preference for Tom-Boyish activities she's ibfernalised the idea that she is ugly and exacerbates this by not caring and dressing like a stablehand.

I always thought of her more as a Brienne style character.

Balefuego

Arya is really not much like Brienne at all

override367

It's never said that Arya is ugly, she just is generally attired in mud and rags, has a boy's haircut, and is a little kid

Brienne is described in detail as having bad teeth, trees growing out of her arm pits, and having the physical build of the cave troll from LOTR

Gnome-Interruptus

Neat, it assigned me to the Nights Watch.

Xeddicus

Gnome-Interruptus wrote: »

Neat, it assigned me to the Nights Watch.

That would suck. The Night's Watch sucks except for their noble goals they suck ass at executing.

Darkewolfe

Dalboz wrote: »

Anyone else started playing on Win the Throne? While it mainly a sweepstakes, there are some interesting little games on there, as well as the personality quiz to align you with a specific House. Eh, it's a good diversion for a few minutes.

I'm with Stark, of course.

There are apparently some codes that you want to enter from affiliate sites. Do you know where to find them?

I was assigned to Stark, but decided to switch to Night's Watch.

Xeddicus

That test may as well be "Which do you want? A B C D E or F"? If you mix and match qualities from each house you end up in the Night's Watch.

the Togfather

I cannot freaking wait for this. I've followed every little bit of news I could find for this series, read the book, watched the preview, done the viral marketing and seen all the clips...my hype level is at an all-time high. Yes, this had me very concerned of being let down, but if these early reviews are any indication, it is quite possible that my expectations will be surpassed. Which now has me wondering...how can this possibly be real?!?!

I am going to geek out on this more than I have on any other franchise. And that's coming from a guy that dressed like a Jedi in college.

Twice.

joshofalltrades

Cowboy Bebop at his computer

The show will feature wars between humans and "The Others," a concept closely associated with ABC's "Lost."

Taramoor

Speaking of Lost, I love this:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/04/05/thrones-author-lost/

First, here’s George R.R. Martin in the profile: “We watched [Lost] every week trying to figure it out, and as it got deeper and deeper I kept saying, ‘They better have something good in mind for the end. This better pay off here.’ And then I felt so cheated when we got to the conclusion.” Martin also cites the Lost ending as the type of mistake he fears making with his own show, saying, “I want to give them something terrific. What if I f— it up at the end? What if I do a Lost? Then they’ll come after me with pitchforks and torches.”

Well, Lindelof had something to say about that. Quite a few things. And they were rather hilarious as well. Here are some of his tweets from over the last 19 hours: “In related news, my therapist just hit the jackpot … George? You got yourself a feud, motherf–ker … Winter IS coming, bitch … I don’t take issue with his opinion, I take issue with the fact that he coined “Pulling a LOST” as empirically “f–king up the ending” … I’ve just been informed George is working on his feud response. I’ll have it in FIVE YEARS! … Two final thoughts, George. A. They weren’t dead the whole time. B. 1997 called. It wants its web design back … I stand by the ending of the show and defend it accordingly. Until I am worthy of the New Yorker, this is the platform I’ve got.”

Lorahalo

Except the Others from Lost weren't frozen ice zombies.

Fizban140

Jesus, he actually tries to defend the ending of Lost? I mean it wasn't the worst thing ever but they completely lost the feeling of the show and alienated most of their fans. I think the term he was looking for was pulling a Battlestar Gallactica.

joshofalltrades

You all are missing the point. Battles between humans and "Others"! It's a focal point of the show! I can't wait to see the epic battles between man and monster in "Game of Some Thrones"

Taramoor

joshofalltrades wrote: »

You all are missing the point. Battles between humans and "Others"! It's a focal point of the show! I can't wait to see the epic battles between man and monster in "Game of Some Thrones"

It looks like the real monster... is man.

No, wait, zombies.

Xeddicus

Martin is just mad LOST scoped his ending- Everyone dies!

Jragghen

Westeros is Purgatory.

joshofalltrades

The Others were created from the sins of Westeros

soxbox

Just a sec....

Ever more complicated government conspiracies
Children going missing
People experiencing supernatural events while others remain skeptical

Jesus! Screw this crap! It's the X-Files all over again!

"The Others are out there"

joshofalltrades

Underage sex?

Seems like HBO is ripping off Roswell to me!

Rollsavager

I really liked the preview footage--there are still a lot of people I can't wait to see on screen, Jaime, Tyrion, and Littlefinger chief among them. I also hope we get to see the Blackfish at some point, even though Martin blogged that he wouldn't be appearing at the Eyrie.

Re: Valyrian steel, I got the impression from the books that it was supposed to be darker than normal steel, and significantly lighter. I took a peek at the "official merchandise" page for the series, and it looks like there's just a light grayish pattern printed onto the metal. Oh well. Not a deal-breaker at all for me.

The one thing that actually bugged me from the preview was the prologue scene. I thought wights were supposed to be silent? Instead I'm getting a "Firefly Reavers" sort of vibe from them. It just takes them one notch away from "creepy" and toward "campy" for me.

EDIT: Also, having just finished A Feast For Crows, I have to ask:

Spoiler:

In the chapter "Back at the Wall," Martin mentions that Feast is half of the story, and A Dance with Dragons is supposed to tell the other half. Does that mean we're stuck with cliffhangers re: Arya, Brienne, and Cersei until book six comes out?

Page-

He said that's how it was going to be originally, but it's since expanded, so there will be at least clues about what happened to them, if not pov chapters.

spamfilter

No

Spoiler:

Martin has said the 2/3 of ADWD with catch up with AFFC, the last 1/3 will extend to events after AFFC, and some of the POVs in AFFC will return in that last 1/3.

Hamurabi

joshofalltrades wrote: »

Bowdor

Oh gof why is this so funny.

Fireflash

Is He in the show? Did they actually hire someone to say nothing but "HODOR!" all the time? That would be great.

Zedar

Hodor!

Hamurabi

A guy I used to play WoW with a lot would help me annoy/terrorize our guildies in Vent by talking to me in Hodorese. We'd basically just yell "Hoe-durr hoe-durr hoe-durr!" at each other, inflecting so it sounded like a genuine language.

No one else in guild had read ASoIaF, so they never got the joke.

Balefuego

Rollsavager wrote: »

I really liked the preview footage--there are still a lot of people I can't wait to see on screen, Jaime, Tyrion, and Littlefinger chief among them. I also hope we get to see the Blackfish at some point, even though Martin blogged that he wouldn't be appearing at the Eyrie.

Re: Valyrian steel, I got the impression from the books that it was supposed to be darker than normal steel, and significantly lighter. I took a peek at the "official merchandise" page for the series, and it looks like there's just a light grayish pattern printed onto the metal. Oh well. Not a deal-breaker at all for me.

The one thing that actually bugged me from the preview was the prologue scene. I thought wights were supposed to be silent? Instead I'm getting a "Firefly Reavers" sort of vibe from them. It just takes them one notch away from "creepy" and toward "campy" for me.

EDIT: Also, having just finished A Feast For Crows, I have to ask:

Spoiler:

In the chapter "Back at the Wall," Martin mentions that Feast is half of the story, and A Dance with Dragons is supposed to tell the other half. Does that mean we're stuck with cliffhangers re: Arya, Brienne, and Cersei until book six comes out?

Those weren't wights (aside from the little girl)

those were Others

Xeddicus

That just makes it worse, since White Walkers should be silent for sure...

override367

Well it was silent at first

Tossing the head and mocking is definitely the kind of thing the Others do. Really, for supernatural entities that are ageless they are dicks.

Alegis

Hmm I should start to reread the series,

Spoiler:

I can't remember well where others pop up other than the prologue if at all

KalTorak

Alegis wrote: »

Hmm I should start to reread the series,

Spoiler:

I can't remember well where others pop up other than the prologue if at all

Spoiler:

Not until SoS.

I really liked how in the books they set up the Night's Watch's horn signals, how even though Others haven't been seen for thousands of years the signal is still on the books. Then when it finally comes everybody is like "hooooolllyyy shiiiitttttt." That part was just so eerie.

Yougottawanna

Balefuego wrote: »

Rollsavager wrote: »

I really liked the preview footage--there are still a lot of people I can't wait to see on screen, Jaime, Tyrion, and Littlefinger chief among them. I also hope we get to see the Blackfish at some point, even though Martin blogged that he wouldn't be appearing at the Eyrie.

Re: Valyrian steel, I got the impression from the books that it was supposed to be darker than normal steel, and significantly lighter. I took a peek at the "official merchandise" page for the series, and it looks like there's just a light grayish pattern printed onto the metal. Oh well. Not a deal-breaker at all for me.

The one thing that actually bugged me from the preview was the prologue scene. I thought wights were supposed to be silent? Instead I'm getting a "Firefly Reavers" sort of vibe from them. It just takes them one notch away from "creepy" and toward "campy" for me.

EDIT: Also, having just finished A Feast For Crows, I have to ask:

Spoiler:

In the chapter "Back at the Wall," Martin mentions that Feast is half of the story, and A Dance with Dragons is supposed to tell the other half. Does that mean we're stuck with cliffhangers re: Arya, Brienne, and Cersei until book six comes out?

Those weren't wights (aside from the little girl)

those were Others

Wait, are you sure? They had bright blue eyes and looked mostly human. I don't think we saw any others onscreen in the HBO version of the prologue.