Game of Thrones, episode two:
Apr. 25th, 2011 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessGame of Thrones, Episode 2
This week, the sound worked! YAY! (And I must say, this is a much better show when you can hear the dialogue.) But because I was feeling sick and my brother was exhausted, we didn't hang around to chat about the episode, so pretty much all you're getting here are my thoughts here. And again, this isn't a formal review or anything, just a listing of various thoughts.
Sarcastic opening statement from my brother, who has read the books, "Gee, I hope nobody dies in this episode." Immediate laughter from the other two, who have not read the books. Thanks, HBO, for clarifying that "Everyone dies," concept so quickly! And now, onwards!
1. Everyone laughed at Tyrion.
2. And wow. I didn't think I could dislike Joffrey more than I do in the books, but, well, yes, I do. I think in the books it took a few more chapters – not many – to realize just what a completely hellish, worthless person he is. Here, it's taken two episodes to land him on everybody's Least Favorite Character list, yes, even ahead of Viserys. Not that we like Viserys either – particularly with this week's little, "Oh, why should I arrest my subjects for breaking the law over such a little thing like slavery," which garnered hisses of severe disapproval from everyone – but, and I realize that in the larger scheme of things, this isn't much, Viserys at least wasn't responsible for helping kill an INNOCENT AND CUTE LITTLE DOGGIE in this episode.
3. Jaime's actor is as entertaining as hell and cracking us all up. This is upsetting SP (who hasn't read the books) who doesn't want to like him.
4. Was anyone else surprised that HBO didn't go into a full girl-on-girl scene with Daenerys and Doreah? I mean, yes, they were sorta there, but clothing remained on. Well, we were surprised. It's HBO.
5. On a related note we all might have thought of the last point from sheer disappointment. I mean, it's HBO! WE EXPECT FULL GIRL ON GIRL NUDITY. Ahem.
6. On a still related note – I am finding myself slightly uncomfortable with the changes made in the Daenerys/Drogo storyline. I went back to the book, and here's what happens:
- Daenerys and Drogo meet; she is terrified.
- On the wedding day, Drogo gives Daenerys a marvelous gift: a beautiful horse that she really, truly loves; she tells him that he has given her the wind, and he smiles.
- On the wedding night, he treats her with unexpected tenderness.
- After the wedding night he goes back to essentially raping her – the text says she's in pain, and the tenderness of that first night is lost.
- but, she begins to contrast the freedom and strength she has with the Dothraki, and the wonders of the horse – she's never loved anything so much – and begins to find her own strength, partly from dreams of dragons, and begins to fit in with the Dothraki. She also begins to contrast the Dothraki with her brother and not surprisingly finds the Dothraki a lot better.
- after this, she turns to Doreah and asks for help in bed.
- sex improves!
- she and Khal Drogo begin to fall in love.
In the show:
- Daenerys and Drogo meet; she is terrified.
- On the wedding day, he gives her the horse, but she is unable to tell him anything about the wind or anything else.
- On the wedding night, the sunset is glorious, and although he does wipe her tears, the filming comes across very much like rape; Dany isn't protesting, but she is crying and looks miserable. (She's also older. In the book, I was very uncomfortable with the image of a 13 year old responding to a complete stranger even if the stranger gave her a horse – and for the record, I think Martin expected readers to be uncomfortable – and I figured I would be less uncomfortable watching this same scene play out with an 18 year old, but, um, not really!)
- Drogo goes right back to raping her, and Dany looks utterly miserable, hot, hating the food, barely able to stand when she gets off the horse, and never looks happy at any point.
- Dany looks at the dragon eggs. Everybody chats about dragons.
- Dany decides to ask for sex advice. HBO inexplicably fails to get both women naked. HBO!
- Dany seduces Drogo.
What I think is missing in the show is any hint that Khal Drogo has done anything for her – we don't get the sense that she's finally fighting free of her horrible, horrible brother, especially since this episode didn't really show any interactions from them. We certainly don't get the sense that she loves the horse Khal Drogo gave her – that horse in the book is huge, and a large part of why she falls for Drogo.
It's more than abrupt, and while I see that HBO is trying to encourage the thought that the dragon eggs are influencing Daenerys – important, since the show has so far omitted all of the dream sequences, so we have no way in the show to realize that Dany has begun to dream of dragons, and that these dreams are slowly giving her courage and turning her into a dragon.
Anyway! Moving on.
7. Interesting that an attempt on the part of HBO to make Catelyn seem more sympathetic is actually making me like her less than I do in the books. In the books, I get her, while finding her incredibly poor decision making and boundless trust in the wrong people beyond frustrating (I mean, really, Littlefinger might as well be wearing a "Don't Trust Me" sign around his neck), but I can at least admire her strength, and end up liking her while simultaneously wanting to pound her multiple times with a clue bat.
Here…well, she's coming across as weaker, more pathetic. And I rather wish they'd left in that line of, "It should have been you." Yeah, it's overkill, and yeah, it's one reason multiple fans ended up hating Cat, but I thought it really summed up just how much Bran's fall wounded her emotionally – and beautifully set up the later scenes where Cat reacts from that emotional wound, instead of with the finely honed political instincts we saw her display before Bran's fall.
8. Cersei, though, is coming across as gloriously, marvelously bitchy, even with that nice added bit of how her first child died. BECAUSE SHE KILLS INNOCENT PUPPIES.
9. Audible gasps from the audience, and then cheers when Arya went after Joffrey. Because, let's face it, we can never have too much of people beating Joffrey up. Man, I hate that kid.
10. For the record, Sansa…took some time to grow on me, but eventually became one of my favorite characters. Partly because she, Tyrion, Oberyn Martell, Samwell Tarly and Alleras are about the only characters that read, and read often. Ok, in Sansa's case I admit that this hasn't seemed to gain much mental power from the reading, but, still. I can emphasize with her reading as escapism.
Which is why I rather liked the way HBO screened that scene, with its strong suggestion that Cersei and Joffrey had previously approached Sansa and told her exactly what to say – and, caught in front of the king, and charged with telling the truth, she managed to fudge things over to "I don't remember." Which quite possibly saved Arya's hand, or at least kept things from getting – on the surface – worse. Although Sansa losing her wolf is, as Bran notes, one of the things that brings the Starks down…
(In rereading the first book, I notice that Sansa does dream of the ghost of her wolf, which makes me wonder if this will ever come into play again – and if Sansa will ever gain the warg powers Bran, Arya and Jon are displaying.)
11. Ok, I knew it was coming, but I still sniffled when Lady died. That poor little puppy :( (Although SP objected that Lady really just looked like a cute dog, and not like a wolf at all. I felt this made the scene EVEN SADDER.) Also, we HATE PUPPY KILLERS.
And with that I'm feeling pretty sick again - possibly remembering the puppy killing - so heading offline for a bit.
This week, the sound worked! YAY! (And I must say, this is a much better show when you can hear the dialogue.) But because I was feeling sick and my brother was exhausted, we didn't hang around to chat about the episode, so pretty much all you're getting here are my thoughts here. And again, this isn't a formal review or anything, just a listing of various thoughts.
Sarcastic opening statement from my brother, who has read the books, "Gee, I hope nobody dies in this episode." Immediate laughter from the other two, who have not read the books. Thanks, HBO, for clarifying that "Everyone dies," concept so quickly! And now, onwards!
1. Everyone laughed at Tyrion.
2. And wow. I didn't think I could dislike Joffrey more than I do in the books, but, well, yes, I do. I think in the books it took a few more chapters – not many – to realize just what a completely hellish, worthless person he is. Here, it's taken two episodes to land him on everybody's Least Favorite Character list, yes, even ahead of Viserys. Not that we like Viserys either – particularly with this week's little, "Oh, why should I arrest my subjects for breaking the law over such a little thing like slavery," which garnered hisses of severe disapproval from everyone – but, and I realize that in the larger scheme of things, this isn't much, Viserys at least wasn't responsible for helping kill an INNOCENT AND CUTE LITTLE DOGGIE in this episode.
3. Jaime's actor is as entertaining as hell and cracking us all up. This is upsetting SP (who hasn't read the books) who doesn't want to like him.
4. Was anyone else surprised that HBO didn't go into a full girl-on-girl scene with Daenerys and Doreah? I mean, yes, they were sorta there, but clothing remained on. Well, we were surprised. It's HBO.
5. On a related note we all might have thought of the last point from sheer disappointment. I mean, it's HBO! WE EXPECT FULL GIRL ON GIRL NUDITY. Ahem.
6. On a still related note – I am finding myself slightly uncomfortable with the changes made in the Daenerys/Drogo storyline. I went back to the book, and here's what happens:
- Daenerys and Drogo meet; she is terrified.
- On the wedding day, Drogo gives Daenerys a marvelous gift: a beautiful horse that she really, truly loves; she tells him that he has given her the wind, and he smiles.
- On the wedding night, he treats her with unexpected tenderness.
- After the wedding night he goes back to essentially raping her – the text says she's in pain, and the tenderness of that first night is lost.
- but, she begins to contrast the freedom and strength she has with the Dothraki, and the wonders of the horse – she's never loved anything so much – and begins to find her own strength, partly from dreams of dragons, and begins to fit in with the Dothraki. She also begins to contrast the Dothraki with her brother and not surprisingly finds the Dothraki a lot better.
- after this, she turns to Doreah and asks for help in bed.
- sex improves!
- she and Khal Drogo begin to fall in love.
In the show:
- Daenerys and Drogo meet; she is terrified.
- On the wedding day, he gives her the horse, but she is unable to tell him anything about the wind or anything else.
- On the wedding night, the sunset is glorious, and although he does wipe her tears, the filming comes across very much like rape; Dany isn't protesting, but she is crying and looks miserable. (She's also older. In the book, I was very uncomfortable with the image of a 13 year old responding to a complete stranger even if the stranger gave her a horse – and for the record, I think Martin expected readers to be uncomfortable – and I figured I would be less uncomfortable watching this same scene play out with an 18 year old, but, um, not really!)
- Drogo goes right back to raping her, and Dany looks utterly miserable, hot, hating the food, barely able to stand when she gets off the horse, and never looks happy at any point.
- Dany looks at the dragon eggs. Everybody chats about dragons.
- Dany decides to ask for sex advice. HBO inexplicably fails to get both women naked. HBO!
- Dany seduces Drogo.
What I think is missing in the show is any hint that Khal Drogo has done anything for her – we don't get the sense that she's finally fighting free of her horrible, horrible brother, especially since this episode didn't really show any interactions from them. We certainly don't get the sense that she loves the horse Khal Drogo gave her – that horse in the book is huge, and a large part of why she falls for Drogo.
It's more than abrupt, and while I see that HBO is trying to encourage the thought that the dragon eggs are influencing Daenerys – important, since the show has so far omitted all of the dream sequences, so we have no way in the show to realize that Dany has begun to dream of dragons, and that these dreams are slowly giving her courage and turning her into a dragon.
Anyway! Moving on.
7. Interesting that an attempt on the part of HBO to make Catelyn seem more sympathetic is actually making me like her less than I do in the books. In the books, I get her, while finding her incredibly poor decision making and boundless trust in the wrong people beyond frustrating (I mean, really, Littlefinger might as well be wearing a "Don't Trust Me" sign around his neck), but I can at least admire her strength, and end up liking her while simultaneously wanting to pound her multiple times with a clue bat.
Here…well, she's coming across as weaker, more pathetic. And I rather wish they'd left in that line of, "It should have been you." Yeah, it's overkill, and yeah, it's one reason multiple fans ended up hating Cat, but I thought it really summed up just how much Bran's fall wounded her emotionally – and beautifully set up the later scenes where Cat reacts from that emotional wound, instead of with the finely honed political instincts we saw her display before Bran's fall.
8. Cersei, though, is coming across as gloriously, marvelously bitchy, even with that nice added bit of how her first child died. BECAUSE SHE KILLS INNOCENT PUPPIES.
9. Audible gasps from the audience, and then cheers when Arya went after Joffrey. Because, let's face it, we can never have too much of people beating Joffrey up. Man, I hate that kid.
10. For the record, Sansa…took some time to grow on me, but eventually became one of my favorite characters. Partly because she, Tyrion, Oberyn Martell, Samwell Tarly and Alleras are about the only characters that read, and read often. Ok, in Sansa's case I admit that this hasn't seemed to gain much mental power from the reading, but, still. I can emphasize with her reading as escapism.
Which is why I rather liked the way HBO screened that scene, with its strong suggestion that Cersei and Joffrey had previously approached Sansa and told her exactly what to say – and, caught in front of the king, and charged with telling the truth, she managed to fudge things over to "I don't remember." Which quite possibly saved Arya's hand, or at least kept things from getting – on the surface – worse. Although Sansa losing her wolf is, as Bran notes, one of the things that brings the Starks down…
(In rereading the first book, I notice that Sansa does dream of the ghost of her wolf, which makes me wonder if this will ever come into play again – and if Sansa will ever gain the warg powers Bran, Arya and Jon are displaying.)
11. Ok, I knew it was coming, but I still sniffled when Lady died. That poor little puppy :( (Although SP objected that Lady really just looked like a cute dog, and not like a wolf at all. I felt this made the scene EVEN SADDER.) Also, we HATE PUPPY KILLERS.
And with that I'm feeling pretty sick again - possibly remembering the puppy killing - so heading offline for a bit.