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Game of Thrones *spoilers*

Discussion in 'Tilted Entertainment' started by cynthetiq, Jul 26, 2011.

  1. Speed_Gibson

    Speed_Gibson Hacking the Gibson

    Location:
    Wolf 359
    Alrighty then. Found a site that offers a free streaming option for the entire show up to season 4. Posting here as it negates the need for any spoiler tags and everyone reading no doubt knows more than I do about this universe and events therein. Not even going to try looking up these character names.
    My initial thoughts after seeing just the opening of Series 1, Episode 1. I have no clue what happens in the books or any of that beyond Borimor losing his head and apparently this King Joffrey fellow (don't recall that name in the portion of book one that I have) died recently on the show.
    This mysterious group of beings the initial group of soldiers encounters looks like some type of Necromancers - that definitely gets my attention and sounds promising down the road. I shall resume watching this a bit later after watching the Spurs beat the Heat soundly yet again; definitely curious how Willow portrays that Jaime or whatever his name is. Last I knew from book one he was he was riding with that Queen type lady on the way to her family lands. I suspect that Sean Bean finding out about the King's bastard kid is part of the reason he loses his head.
     
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  2. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    Please review each episode here.

    Please.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  3. Speed_Gibson

    Speed_Gibson Hacking the Gibson

    Location:
    Wolf 359
    Sounds good to me. Perhaps co-posting said reviews between this thread an my blog just 'cause .
     
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  4. Speed_Gibson

    Speed_Gibson Hacking the Gibson

    Location:
    Wolf 359
    Finished the blog post, my first in 6 months it turns out. That link would be here if you are interested.
    I shall probably not post the full reviews here every time as I suspect they may get longer and a bit unwieldy for this online forum environment.
    ---
    Game of Thrones Reviews! – Series 1, Episode 1

    Alright, fresh review from me! This is the launch of what will be a continuing series of “dull edge” reviews. Our subject for these is the Game of Thrones series. I found a free option to view them online in decent quality without nasty spyware/etc, so I am finally giving this show a try.

    Things to consider when reading these reviews:


    I have read part of the first book, but not very far. It lost my interest and never regained it. I decided to make these reviews truly interesting by NOT finishing book one or anything beyond that point for now. With that in mind….


    I found the names in the books difficult to work with, much less follow. I have no problems using more familiar character names like calling Sean Bean ” Boromir”or calling the dwarve from Willow that name.


    I do not care if or how the live action series differs from the books. I have almost no points of comparison beyond a few early ones from book 1. If you want to go all Fan boy and say things like “Peter Parker having organic webshooters was the worst thing they did in those questionable at best Spider Man films. Having Toby do a fine whiny bitch Anakin Skywalker impersonation was a close second” (Just my personal view), go ahead and share that somewhere else.

    If anybody feels like posting any comment besides the typical gambling/Russian porn/”buy my product” ones I normally see, feel free. I have to approve all comments but will gladly do so if they are legitimate. Please no spoilers for episodes beyond whatever point is being discussed. Which brings up….

    There will be massive spoilers if you have not read the books or seen the series yourself!

    I am not using any spoiler tags or hiding anything. If Billy Bob does naughty things with his sister and then dies eating a poison mushroom planted in his dinner by his cousin Leroy, I shall share such details. Probably in a somewhat sarcastic and irreverent manner completely ignoring the rather odd names.

    These are written as I watch them, so you will see a “live riff” feel to these.

    One last note – I may be American but I do appreciate the proper spelling of many words as used in the United Kingdom and will be using them.

    With all that out of the way, ON WITH THE SHOW!

    Series 1, Episode 1 – “Winter is Coming”

    Our opening shot shows some soldiers heading out into what must be either Siberia or North Dakota. I hear that Siberia is warmer in the winter and has better Vodka, so hopefully they have that going for them. They are tracking a group of bandits/rebels/whatever that has been troubling them, which they discover. Unfortunately something has already killed the entire group – did they run into some back woods medieval inbred yokels with early chainsaws?

    The youngster out of the group finds the corpses half buried in the snow fit only for public office (missing their heads which are mounted on handy poles to display the whole set). One of the young girls in the slaughtered group still has her head attached but been has stabbed in the chest. When he leads the other two back to the site everything has vanished, or so it appears…..

    Suddenly they see some ghoulish type creature for only a second (I forgot what they are called in the book, I shall wait until the series tells me again) before the leader of the group dies a no doubt nasty death off-camera. The kid then sees the corpse of the girl that was killed staring at him with Walking Dead eyes. Either those creatures we get a teasing glimpse of are some sort of Necromancers or they are raising zombies. Personally I am pulling for the zombie angle as the visual of a massive herd of walkers taking down an army (only takes one or two bites to start the chaos) would be awesome to see. The third chap loses his head (I sense a theme here) as one of these mysterious creatures tests the sharpness of his blade and is probably fed to or at least shared with the Orcs waiting just off camera for more hobbits to come along and fill their bellies.

    Theme Music and Opening:

    I like it. Powerful, simple, and effective. The visuals in the opening look like some type of steam punk model and work well.

    The kid runs away and survives the encounter only to be caught as a deserter and parted from his head. He tells them he saw the “White Walkers” first. We are introduced to the land of Winterfell, and hear that ‘Winter is coming’. These necromancers seem to like the cold weather, so an invasion by them when this winter does arrive sounds promising. Winterfell is ruled by Eddard Stark, played by Borimir…er…Sean Bean. Cue the countdown for a nasty death yet again. I already know how he dies and it is unfortunately not as cool as turning into an pincushion for Orc arrows, but hey you can’t always get a hero’s death.

    Lord Borimir and his group are heading back home after executing the deserter when they find a direwolf. It is dead but there are six pups still alive. I know what happens to one of these (all of them survive and raised by the kids) and that sounds hard to watch just thinking about it.

    Word from the capital arrives at Winterfell via the winged postal service they use for important messages that the old king Jon Arryyn has died. I suspect his death from “fever” was as natural as Captain Pike’s death in the Star Trek Mirror universe that gave the alternate Kirk his command. The new king (Robert Baratheon who is married into the Lannister famly , looked up that bit online just now) and his entourage travel to Lord Borimir’s land and the king asks him to be his XO (that’s executive officer for you civilian types); the term used here is “King’s Hand”. He accepts not surprisingly and they mourn the loss of Ned’s sister, who would have been the King’s wife/Queen now (I forget his name, don’t really care. I am sure he dies at some point) had she not been killed by the family across yet another body of water…..

    Cue our introduction to the Targaryen House. We meet Daenerys Targaryen, who is a young attractive blonde. We can likely safely assume it will not be long before she is showing more skin than the regular US networks would allow. As I recall from the first book she is only 14, but they understandably age her a bit (and some other female characters as well) as the idea of 14-15 year old females getting naked, getting married, and having sexual intercourse works better in a book set in a historical medieval fantasy time frame and not so well on television. Apparently someone in her family killed the sister of Lord Stark years ago.

    Well that was quick, apparently no one in this place (female at least) has any type of undergarment. This show features more breasts and rumps than a meat market in Bangkok, and is not afraid to use some language that American censors bleep instantly on the non-HBO/Cinemax channels. Personally I prefer the BBC approach where they are more relaxed with certain words in the evening hours and not terrified of the human body.

    Daenerys has been betrothed to marry a Dothraki lord/prince/ruler/whatever and to rule the grasslands they call home (read this much of the book). This shockingly enough is a case in this universe where a sexual relation happens between two people that are related to each other through marriage, and not by blood. Not sure if the marriage ceremony and subsequent pregnancy is going to happen in this first episode but we shall see. I suspect the marriage is drawn out to at least 15 minutes if not longer and not going to be until at least 1 or 2 episodes in this first series (that would be ‘season’ in “American”)

    Ned’s wife Cat gets a message from her sister saying that King Arryn was murdered. I would be more surprised if the rulers in this land die of actual natural deaths or especially old age. This type of environment is going to be similar to the Roman Empire where an emperor’s reign was frequently less than 10 years and ended all too often at the business end of a “trusted bodyguard’s” or assassin’s dagger.

    We see a feast with the Stark and Lannisters. I have no snide comments for this bit so moving on…..

    Cut to a wedding celebration for Daenerys and the hairy dude whose name I have no interest looking up, I shall call him ‘Bob’. She gets some books for a gift and ooh, what this? Dragon eggs that have “turned to stone over time”. Any time I hear “dragons have been gone for thousands” (might have read it in the book, but you know the line is coming soon still), I hear “dragons will make an appearance at some point when we can maximise the suspense and ratings”. We already heard “White Walkers have been gone for thousands of years”, and those necromancer dudes are obviously back.

    Anywho, ‘Bob’ thinks it is a great fun when two men fight to the death over some dancing girls that forgot to put on shirts. Apparently Klingons and Dathraki are related somehow as they both prefer violence as the first and best answer.

    On a more interesting note, the first thing I think of when I read/hear ‘Dothraki’ is this epic piece of crap game from a few years back < Link opens in new tab> that some of you may remember.

    For the finale of the premier, Ned leaves with the King and what I was waiting for the entire episode – Ned’s son Brandon climbs one of the old towers and witnesses the Queen engaging in carnal relations with her brother. Jaime Lannister talks to him briefly then does the logical thing and shoves him out of the window. He should have tossed him head first to maximise the chance of him landing head first and breaking his neck rather than just lose the use of his legs, or just broken his neck then tossed him. I seriously doubt David Caruso and his top-notch team on CSI: Winterfell are going to be testing the DNA left on the boy’s throat or showing when he died.

    *Pictures David Caruso trying to casually flip his visor up as he delivers the dramatic line.*

    I am going to give this a show a rating of 4.0 Rotties out of a possible 5.0 Rotties. Solid characters, good visuals, superb sets, and enough tension brewing to blow up at least 3 battleships named Maine (and blame on Spain on course). Stay tuned to this same channel, same time for more reviews as I view more episodes.

    <insert custom rating graphic here>
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2014
    • Like Like x 1
  5. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    "I have always been your son."
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2014
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  6. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    I don't know if I can watch that episode with my husband. He knows something big happens at the end of the season, as I've been terrible about hiding that bit, LOL. I'm sad to see Charles Dance end his tenure on the show. One of the hardest parts about this season has been having to say goodbye to some great actors in Pedro Pascal and Charles Dance.[/spoilers]
     
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  7. Taliesin

    Taliesin Slightly Tilted

    Location:
    Western Australia
    I'm not reading this thread because I don't want the spoilers, so this may have been posted...
    But this happens every time a good episode comes out.
    Choice backs Australians who pirate Game of Thrones, says Foxtel has left &#039;few choices&#039; besides illegal downloads - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

     
    • Like Like x 1
  8. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    Salladhor Saan would be proud.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  9. Fremen

    Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

    Location:
    E. Texas
    Saw this on FB...

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    TOO SOON.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  11. Fremen

    Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

    Location:
    E. Texas
    Just saw the reply to the Mountain pic...

    [​IMG]
     
    • Like Like x 3
  12. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    Ouch.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  13. Speed_Gibson

    Speed_Gibson Hacking the Gibson

    Location:
    Wolf 359
    Might give Episode 2 shot tonight. I think my reviews need more sarcasm/smartass comments and less "normal blow by blow" stuff you read everywhere else. Some of my more favourite film reviews I have posted on that blog thing were the ones where I wandered off course and never really made it back to a "proper" review.
     
  14. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    thunk

    'nuff said




    PS...I liked that scene with The Children too...great stuff. And the dragons like it well done...
     
  15. KirStang

    KirStang Something Patriotic.

    Any insight as to why Arya didn't kill the Hound like he wanted?
     
  16. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    She wanted him to suffer.
    It was going to be a slow humiliating death.

    And it also shows how cold she's getting.
     
  17. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    She hates him, in the end. She felt he didn't deserve it.
     
  18. Fangirl

    Fangirl Very Tilted

    Location:
    Arizona
    Maisie Williams (who plays Arya) said that she felt Arya (Game Of Thrones' Arya) might have killed The Hound if he hadn't begged.
    I agree with all the reasons you guys cited as well.
     
  19. Leto

    Leto Slightly Tilted

    Location:
    Toronto


    I just saw the ending of this episode.!!!! Shocking....
     
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  20. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    In honor of last season...
    Something fun while we're waiting for the next.

    Red Viper & The Mountain
    [​IMG]
     
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