A bit disappointed that our American fans couldn't create threads. I guess this season isn't going to as successful as the first one.
War grips the continent of Westeros. As Tyrion Lannister tries to take this strong-willed nephew in hand in King's Landing, Stanis Baratheon launches his own campaing to take the Iron Throne with the help of a mysterious priestess. In the east, Daenerys must lead her retinue through a desolate wasteland whilst beyond the Wall the Night's Watch seeks the aid of a wildling.
First episode was a good reintroduction to old, and introduction to new characters. Set up a couple major plot points well.
As far as the skin goes...
I could do without it. It almost always felt out of place. The thing is, I never really noticed it all that much during my read of the series. I've recently finished a reread, and noticed it much more in the novels. Almost, so much so that I could possibly argue that the TV series doesn't have enough of it to stay true to the source material. Almost every POV chapter has some sort of lude behavior, or at the least nakedness.
Hopefully we will have more nakedness done with class and reason like most of it was in season one. Episode one's nakedness was tacky, and used only for shock value.
You are strange, my mouse. So strange. You accept blood, violence, murder, suicide, black magic and death of animal beings over something that is so natural.
Why?
The GoT is meant for the adult audience and it's never going to cross the boundary with the younger ones. Hence they are showing it in the Sky Atlantic after nine o'clock. Don't know when it is exactly broadcasted in the states, other than that it comes out at Sunday and ours in Monday.
Surely some could had done the scene in the House of Little Finger a bit differently, but taken in the account that it happen to be a house of pleasures, it was only a brief reminder of the realities in this series.
But I, for one, find it so strange that some of the female folk can read them "romance" novels and watch all sorts - like for example my upcoming daughter-in-law - and when it comes to GoT, they shy away and cannot understand the series, "because it's all sex."
I have a question in regards of the Lady in the Red (don't know her name yet), but that ruby pendant, is it magically enhanced or is it a piece of dragon's heart?
Ah no, I don't have a problem with sex at all (more Loras and Renly, I say!). I just didn't think the scene in this episode had any relevance to anything. It was even any of 'our' characters!
That's Melisandre. Didn't notice a pendant! I can't remember it from the books either so can't help.
If you look closely the death scene with her in it, you can see that after the man passes on the floor, the ruby pendant flares up a bit as if it has fire in it. And as far as I understand the magic in the Westros has roots in the dragons, hence the question: is it a piece of dragon's heart?
Risking people coming along and throwing in spoilers here.
The nude scene was unnecessary, just an excuse to get naked women on the screen. If they wanted such a scene, it would have been better taste to have Shay show a bit of flesh in that scene with Tyrion instead.
And considering Loras and Renly didn't even do anything in the book - although it was implied - I see no need to include it in the show either, beyond implying it, which is what Petyr did at the tournament in season one.
If you look closely the death scene with her in it, you can see that after the man passes on the floor, the ruby pendant flares up a bit as if it has fire in it. And as far as I understand the magic in the Westros has roots in the dragons, hence the question: is it a piece of dragon's heart?
She is Melisandre priestess of R'hllor(a religion of the free cities) The gem around her neck is a ruby, it flare up like fire to represent her gods powers. R'hllor's power is based on fire, which is why you saw her burning the statues of the seven,whom she declares false gods.
on a sidenote, the mans name was Maester cressen....not sure if they named him in the episode if they did I missed it...
it's really hard not to explain anymore without giving spoilers...Just remember the series is actually called A song of ice and fire dragons,blood magic and a fiery god are only some aspects of magic...Warging, greensight, prophecy, necromancy(well kind of...), the old gods, the others(white walkers), Faceless men(you all saw one of them...but i can't say more on the subject yet) also exist...hell even the wall has some magic about it!
PS:GREY WIND LOOKED AWESOME!! I'm glad they finally got the direwolves right, can't wait to see full grown ghost....
It was a good episode to get the series going again. Highlights for me were Tyrion arriving at King's Landing, Jack Gleeson as Joffery and Stannis dictating the letter. That was the perfect way to get across Stannis's character.
I also thought the added scenes at the end with Janos Slynt killing the baby was a good way of showing what a **** the guy is.
Anyone notice the better production values so far in this season. It looks like they have a bigger budget this time round.
Won't be seeing this until the DVD comes out, but....
I thought the wolves were meant to be real wolves (the "actors", that is, not the dire wolves in the book); the cgi is used to place them on screen with the humans, making them look bigger while doing so.
Won't be seeing this until the DVD comes out, but....
I thought the wolves were meant to be real wolves (the "actors", that is, not the dire wolves in the book); the cgi is used to place them on screen with the humans, making them look bigger while doing so.
Yes. (Well, the blu-ray.) Well worth the wait. Give or take the poorly-attended jousting, I think they did an excellent job.
And now, it seems from various comments I've read, the budget is either enhanced, or they've made good use of existing sets (from season 1) and spent the money that process saved really well.
The sex scene was fairly yawnsome - the killing of Robert's baby was far more shocking. Nice to see that Ros has risen so far already, though
Loved the scenes between Tyrion/Joffrey, Tyrion/Cersei, Cersei/Littlefinger, Robb/Jaime. Fairly impressed with the newly cg'd Grey Wind. I did notice that the blacksmiths where we met Gendry in season 1 suddenly seemed to be on top of a hill.
Time will tell, but on first viewing I wasn't convinced about the casting of Stannis and Melisandre. I thought maybe Liam Cunningham might have been better as Stannis rather than Davos - but maybe that's because I pictured Davos as being slightly younger (I always imagined him as a James Purefoy type when I was reading the book).
Mostly talking heads, but a decent scene-setter. A solid 7 out of 10, I'd say.
I'm in agreement that the flesh was shoe-horned in there 'cause, you know, it had to be somewhere. I was shocked Tyrion and Shae didn't get down to business earlier.
The opening scene with Joff's name day was a pretty weak one to start on, I thought. Joff has his moments, but Sansa is a fairly poor actress, as were most involved there.
Otherwise a fairly strong episode. Davos is my favourite character from the books, so I'm keen to see how he develops in the show. The politicking in King's Landing should be interesting now that Tyrion is in the picture.
I know I'll probably be in the minority here, but Peter Dinklage just doesn't convince me. It's the accent, I think - I'm not sure he ever quite gets there with it. Lena Heady, on the other hand, absolutely steals the show.
Won't be seeing this until the DVD comes out, but....
I thought the wolves were meant to be real wolves (the "actors", that is, not the dire wolves in the book); the cgi is used to place them on screen with the humans, making them look bigger while doing so.
They are using real wolves for some of the scenes - Grey Wind's snarling at Jaime being an example, but for comparison purposes, their external shots will probably be CGI to give them a size & bulk they won't have and to also make them much easier to manipulate than their series 1 counterparts, by all accounts.
But on to the episode! Overall I thought it was a damn good start at getting a quick catchup with all the old players & new as well as several scenes not present in the books to catch us ASoIaF vets out!
The killings in Kings Landing were very shocking, and that's from a show with numerous beheadings and random death & brutality. That's got to be a good sign if it can get under my skin so quickly & easily
Jack Gleeson (Joffrey) has done a sterling job and is probably the most unsung of all the 'leads' with even the other kid actors getting all the plaundits. Right from the very first episode, where he didn't even say a word, his smarmy arrogance and cruelty shone through. Bravo!
Davos will take a bit of time to grow into this role I think, as will Stannis & Melissandre. There wasn't a great deal for them to do this episode, but when Stannis & Renly meet that'll make for some good tv as will the scenes better Davos & Melissandre.
What I felt worked: Tyrion continues to have the best lines and his zingers still hit their target.
Joffrey + anyone. He's such a superb little ****. Makes me hope he never ever winds up in any powerful position in the real world!
Michelle Fairley as Catelyn still hits all the marks as worried mum, vengeful widow and queen mother. I wasn't convinced by her casting initially but she's definitely growing on me.
What I felt didn't: I can't get Shae. She's not at all how she's pictured in the books and her character seems wildly fluctuating between mysterious and dangerous to naive and petulant. I hope she either gets more screen time to understand her game or just sidelined altogether.
It is weird that Roz continues to have such a prominent role in this series. I'm not sure what the makers are trying here - I get that Littlefinger doesn't have much in the way of a supporting cast to reveal plot with, but she seems to be fulfilling the 'Sansa' role in the story as being Littlefinger's sounding board. It made more sense that way as there's no way Sansa could tell anyone (if they even believed her) what he'd said but by telling Roz it's completely dumb. She could sell out his secrets to whomever and that seems awfully careless for someone as meticulous as LF.
Bran's wolf dreams. As much as they kind of make sense in the book to keep us up to date with the 'wider story' beyond the wall, right now they just cut away from areas of intrigue to areas of boredom and random Natalie Tena spottings. By the way Natalie, stand up straight girl! There's no need to hunch over like Quasimodo all the time!
I know I'll probably be in the minority here, but Peter Dinklage just doesn't convince me. It's the accent, I think - I'm not sure he ever quite gets there with it.
In my opinion he is one of the few characters they have nailed (along with Arya, Ned, Robert, Cersei). He is one of the better actors they have cast, and I think he does the character justice.
I pretty much agree with much of what everyone else has said. During the opening scene the first thing I thought was that they upped the production value, and the wolves look really good. The sex scene I think was to establish Ros as a minor character and taking some of Littlefinger's responsibilities in regards to the brothel (she was just miming what he was saying last season to her), but yeah, it was more or less fluff. I also don't care for the guy playing Stannis, and agree that Davos' actor would fit the bill much better.
Overall it's a slow start, but that's to be expected. I'm just glad it's back!
I know I'll probably be in the minority here, but Peter Dinklage just doesn't convince me. It's the accent, I think - I'm not sure he ever quite gets there with it. Lena Heady, on the other hand, absolutely steals the show.
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