Game of Thrones on HBO

HBO has just officially announced they've greelit the first season of Game of Thrones! See here for details. Starring Sean Bean and Lena Headley et al.

http://scifiwire.com/2010/03/hbo-says-yes-to-game-of-t.php

...and a bunch of other people, I hope? That would really need an ensemble cast.

irrhapsodi,

Behold the Game of Thrones ensemble.

I'm pretty happy with their choices, particularly Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings) as Eddard Stark, Mark Addy as King Robert (The Full Monty) and Peter Dinklage (from Station Agent, Elf, etc.) as Tyrion. I remain guardedly optimistic.

Nice. Hope they do the series justice.

I'm really concerned that the series measures up to the books.

So, now we're up to Season 2. Did it measure up?

Season 1 fit the book very well, I think. Of course, it is much easier to keep all the characters and drama straight if you have already read the book.
However, season 2 doesn't seem to be following as closely...I'm not sure if it has just been that long since I read it or if I just missed some underlying themes because I actually listened to it as an audiobook.

Anyone else?

Haven't seen Season 2 yet, but just watched Season 1 on DVD (and finished A Dance with Dragons). Agree w/#7 about Season 1. I thought it made since for the final Season 1 episode to start advancing some of the storylines from Book 2, but I suspected just from the bit I saw that Season 2 might diverge a bit more. It seemed that Shae at least would be pretty different in the TV series vs. the books ...

It seems they have eliminated some characters and given more to do to others. Such as Lollys isn't even mentioned and Shae becomes Sansa's maid. Bronn's given more to do and seems to help explain the storyline by pointing things out and asking questions. *SPOILER* Sunday night's episode left me shrieking at the TV, "The dragons didn't get kidnapped!" Love that Hound though.

>9 varielle:, that's what I said!! I sat there fuming because that definitely never happened in the book!! Shae is in a different place, but I imagine that must have been in the interest of not adding too many more characters for the audience to keep up with.

I caught up with all episodes of season 2 on Sunday that were built up in TiVo, so it hit me all at one when something didn't add up.

About Renly and Loras Tyrell, did I just miss all that in the book??

>10 VivalaErin: re: Renly & Loras; it was in the book, but it was mostly hinting (my suspicions weren't confirmed until something Jaime says in, I think, Book 3). I found a good page a while back where someone had compiled all of the Renly/Loras hints, but I can't seem to find it again!

Yes, Renly & Loras went right over my head too, but in doing a re-read I'm beginning to pick up on it. Very subtle, old George.

Yes surprisingly subtle, I find myself raking backwards to find one phrase to shed light on another point far later on. I like that !
If he takes as long to write the next one we will have time to re reread them all!

I was not impressed with the kidnapping of the dragons. And I told that TV several times that it was wrong, but they remained kidnapped. I don't really mind about some of the minor characters being missing; I have no idea how people can follow the characters if they haven't read the books.

I've enjoyed the show and tried to see it as a positive thing, but it seems like everyone on the metro and bus is reading GRRM. I don't even know why it makes me unhappy; his writing is better than most of the books I see people reading on the metro, so I should be happy for them. For some reason, I hate when things I love get too popular. And I feel old. I still clearly remember driving from bookstore to bookstore, because I was sure I had missed the release date for Feast for Crows...

I think most of the changes that have occurred have probably been for the better. The combining of characters, some of the earlier foreshadowing, fleshing out the motivations behind some characters who are a bigger deal later (Theon's gotten a lot more tv attention than he did in the first two books).

I don't even mind the dragon-kidnapping. There are stretches of the books where Dany does very little - so TV can either ignore her for a long time, like it did Jaime, or come up with stuff for her to do. My big complaint re: Dany and her dragons is actually that in the book, she struck me as quite savvy about their political and monetary worth and set about capitalizing on that. In the television series, she stands outside the gates of Qarth refusing to show them off for no reason I can discern other than 'CGI dragons cost money'. She's coming off as much more petulant and much less capable in the television series, which bothers me.

That is, at least, thankfully balanced out by a TV Cersei who I both like and understand much better. They're doing a wonderful job of fleshing her out in interesting ways.

The one thing that bothers me about this show is the amount of graphic sex, which is often graphic sexual violence or sex of dubious consent. I know it's HBO. I know there is sex in the books. I know, I know, rape incest etc.

But I think Hunger Games showed us pretty clearly that there is a difference between a thing occurring and a thing occurring in a way the camera loves and lingers on, suggesting that the audience too should pay close attention.

I seriously need to read these books, because I'm living for the HBO series at the moment.

Having not previously known the characters, this is a great thread to read and find out more about how the series has adapted. I agree with Aerrin99, in that the cost of CGI dragons is a probable cause for them not being shown. However, I'm heartened to hear that Dany doesn't appear much for stretches in the books because I was wondering whether the HBO series was beginning to forget about her!

I think I need to start reading asap!

Even though I'm sure they are precious to produce, I did think it was a nice touch that as the dragons were being kidnapped their little tails were hanging out of the cage.