Game of Thrones

[Marvolo]

I was wondering something about the books. Due the books maintain the quality of the first one? I know A Feast for Crows recieved some pretty scathing reviews, but I believe that is somewhat to do with it being half of a whole. Am I right in this thought, or do this series suffer from the same problems as the Wheel of Time series and the Sword of Truth series? As in that, as the books went on the authors began losing their grasp on the material? The first book is great, and I hope the rest of the books can live up to it.

 

[Siby]

I believe the books hold up as the series progresses. The last book (yes, people were annoyed that it was split) still is as good as the first book, in my opinion.

 

[Superfreak]

Here are my favorite opening sequences:

1. True Blood (better than the actual show)


2. Rome


3. Firefly



4. The Borgias



5. The Tudors



I intentionally left off sitcoms because the ones you remember (Friends, Cheers, The Office, MASH) become cliché to the point of annoyance over time.

I always thought Rome was among the worst intros ever devised, cheap animation, lack of relevance other than Roman grafiti, and the intro music was horrible. But the WORST ever is Big Love

 

[Buford The Sly]

I was wondering something about the books. Due the books maintain the quality of the first one? I know A Feast for Crows recieved some pretty scathing reviews, but I believe that is somewhat to do with it being half of a whole. Am I right in this thought, or do this series suffer from the same problems as the Wheel of Time series and the Sword of Truth series? As in that, as the books went on the authors began losing their grasp on the material? The first book is great, and I hope the rest of the books can live up to it.

Yes they get progressively better, the third is considered the consenus best one. The fourth one is good but like the people who don't like it say. It's half a book. The three most popular characters are absent for the entire novel. Very slight spoiler[BLACKOUT]Jon Snow makes a brief appearance. [/BLACKOUT] So that's pretty much why people didn't like it. I knew this going into reading it so it got my mind right and I was able to enjoy it. The first part of feast is kind of a slog but it really picks up about halfway through it and becomes just a good as the other books in my opinion.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I loved the fourth book. But that may be because Brienne is my favorite character.

 

[papie]

It's eerie how much this character behaves exactly like me.
Down to the honest distrustfulness to the way he tells that story about the Hound.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Here are my favorite opening sequences:

1. True Blood (better than the actual show)


2. Rome


3. Firefly



4. The Borgias



5. The Tudors



I intentionally left off sitcoms because the ones you remember (Friends, Cheers, The Office, MASH) become cliché to the point of annoyance over time.

No mad men? Quantum Leap?
Outragous.

 

[ChickenScratch]

Marvolo - I think the books hold up in quality throughout. As you mentioned there's one book that's not really a whole book so you can't really judge it as harshly. One also has to take into account that like any war there are times of great activity and lulls in the action too.

Personally I would never say the Sword Of Truth series dipped in quality too much. Towards the middle (Pillars Of The Earth) it got a bit weaker. But overall, SOT is my favorite fantasy series ever. But then my favorite author is Ayn Rand, Terry Goodkind is an objectivist, as am I so it's right in my wheelhouse.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Question : did the men built the great wall ? I read some contextual stuff on wikipedia but that wasn't clear.

 

[Marvolo]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question.

 

[Poeman]

another fantastic episode...man the time flies by watching this...Tyrion and Jon Snow are going to be massive stars for HBO

 

[Buford The Sly]

The big moments for me were
Three eyed crow
Finally Ghost (They gave him a voice, which was different but understandable)
Samwell's intro
Tyrion and Theon
Hodor!
And for the first time I got chills at the last scene.

Definately the pieces are set and dominos will start to fall after this episode.

 

[ChickenScratch]

Hodor! Hodor. Hodor.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Question : did the men built the great wall ? I read some contextual stuff on wikipedia but that wasn't clear.

The Wall in the north? Yeah, men built it thousands of years ago under Brandon Stark, a.k.a. Brandon the Builder. I don't think there's anything magical about it. It's just a really impressive feat of human ingenuity.

 

[Buford The Sly]

The Wall in the north? Yeah, men built it thousands of years ago under Brandon Stark, a.k.a. Brandon the Builder. I don't think there's anything magical about it.

um...yeah

Spoiler

There's the spells that keep the White Walkers (I'm sorry they're still the Others in my book) and Cold Hands from crossing it.

It's also slowly grown in the thousands of years since they first built it. The nightswatch has three "classes" of people. The Rangers, who are the fighters, the builders, who maintain the wall, and the stewarts, who do the up keeping duties (ie: cooking, cleaning, running errands). The builders keep putting layers of ice and earth on the top of wall. You can notice the layering in that first shot they had of it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh yeah, I forgot about those spells. So yeah, some magic to it. The structure itself was all built by hand, though. It's not like they magically made a wall of ice spring up; it was years and years of hard work and human effort under Brandon the Builder.

 

[O'Haire]

I was disappointed when we didn't get to see Brans dream before he woke up. But now it looks like we will be seeing it in pieces. So that makes me happy.

 

[DACrowe]

I always thought Rome was among the worst intros ever devised, cheap animation, lack of relevance other than Roman grafiti, and the intro music was horrible. But the WORST ever is Big Love

You might be right. I freely admit that Borgias (which has an oustanding opening) should be #2 and that Mad Men should probably be on that list before Rome and Firefly as well....but since Rome and Firefly are my favorite shows of all time, they get a pass and end up on there.

The awesomeness of Rome the show made the opening titles seem better than they probably are. An unbiased list would go: True Blood, The Borgias, Mad Men, Dexter and The Tudors.

But I said "my favorites" for a reason.

 

[conan69]

I picked up the first book as I passed a Borders today. Read the first 50 pages tonight and will be able to really dive into when my time frees up considerably after thurs.

From what Ive read so far, the show has done a pretty good job translating whats on the page to film. Of course, reading, Im seeing the characters as they've been portrayed in the series.

Been enjoying the show. I guess the ***** will really start hitting the fan with ep5.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

They're addictive as hell. I was done with the first book within a week.

 

[Solidus]

Great episode, this keeps getting better and better.

 

[SouLeSS]

I guess the ***** will really start hitting the fan with ep5.

You have no idea.

 

[ChickenScratch]

So we are up to the tournament, have seen both Clegene brothers and given the whole backstory through Littlefinger. Interesting how they used him to flesh them out considering. Weird how things are just related to you in a book but for the screen someone has to give some things voice.

Did anyone notice that the Freys get a couple mentions this episode? You saw the Twins in the opening this week for the first time and then there's one of the Freys at the inn when Tyrion gets taken.

Spoiler

Next up I'm looking forward to The Vale, sky cells, seeing Lisa and her weirdo (possibly developmentally challenged son).

Oh, and Hodor was more awesome than I thought he would. Can't wait to see more.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm very interested to see how they do the [blackout]sky cells[/blackout]. The visual designs for the show have so far been fantastic. The Wall in particular looks better than I ever imagined it while reading.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Hodor! Hodor. Hodor.

Not nearly the slow doofus I was expecting him to be.