Reply With QuoteI thought Theon was supposed to be rakishly handsome. The actor they have playing him looks like he was born with FAS or something.
Robb. Theon showed up when Ned got the news of the deserter. He's the fair-haired one.
I thought Theon was supposed to be rakishly handsome. The actor they have playing him looks like he was born with FAS or something.
It's Lily Allen's younger brother who is playing Theon.
*shrug*, Theon's looks were never a big deal, especially considering they don't matter as much as Robert and his bastards all having coal black hair and deep blue eyes, and they ditched that. But, like I said earlier, there are compromises made, some practical and others necessary. For instance, they tried doing the pure white armor of the Kingsguard and the problem was that the color just looked like shit on camera. So they replaced that.
You have a way better memory of the books than I do. I can't believe some of you remember the names of characters that don't even survive the prologue. As far as I could tell, everything was perfect.Originally Posted by Bahimiron
He very recently listened to the books again, so it hasnt been THAT long, but still with so many characters it can get confusing...
I felt exactly the same way. Those 13.5 minutes (not counting the into montage of scenes to come) simply flew by. I also felt the look, feel and acting really nailed it. Even the guy playing Waymar Royce gave off the feeling of youthful hubris and snotty contempt that the character in the book's first scene gives off.
I don't even really have an issue with the slightly changed beginning, though it seemed silly to have dismembered corpses that suddenly disappeared, it would have been far less confusing to simply have dead wildings that vanished, then reappeared as wights. My only concern is the change to wights and Others that made them into "fast zombies". In the books, the wights are slow and shambling, as befits their condition as reanimated dead, and the Others are portrayed as patient and methodical, silent killers who have no need to stalk or horrify victims beyond the terror felt by their mere presence and the knowledge of impending death at their cold, strange hands. Here they make them all look like 28 Days Later zombies, which I think is in contrast to the sense of horror the books imbue them with. A minor detail though given that the Others won't make another significant appearance until Season 3 (Storm of Swords).
Edit : Forgot to gush that I cannot wait for this in two weeks, though that probably goes without saying...
My opinion is:
The Prologue came out very cheesy. It just falls flat and does not recapture the mood of the books.
Then it gets better. Decent characters, surprising likeness between Catelyn and Arya. Mood is well done at Winterfell.
What feels odd is the sound. It does not feel natural at all, way too clean as if it's done in studio or dubbed instead of in the open. It really ruins the scenes because it gives them a "fake" feeling.
I really disagree on the sounds. I liked the stark soudscape with only occasional musical cues. It is Winterfell after all. Ideally places like King's Landing and the free cities will have more of an urban backdrop for the show's sound. As it was, the silence of the wood really worked for me.
It's not a problem of background noise, but of too perfect quality of voices.
The voices just seem dubbed over in studio instead of taken out in the open. There's almost no feeling of distance as if everyone was talking right into a microphone.
Although I realize we're going off a very small amount of data, I agree with this. The Others in the book are awesome, very alien, and terrifying. The Others in the show just seem like a badass enemy army or something. Adding the thing where it showily decapitates someone and then leaves the one guy alive also effects a large change to the way the Others are portrayed in the book (as implacable, emotionless, alien killers -- they seem to treat the humans they find almost like a pest infestation). Now it's like they're trying to send a message to the humans, whereas before it was like they were just methodically exterminating the vermin.
I'm not sure whether the wights move fast or not, though. It's hard to tell if that was wights or the Other.
I listened to the audiobooks a few weeks ago, and the prologue definitely gives a very different vibe in the book compared to the TV show.
And I wasn't too happy with the HBO interpretation.. It seemed like an opening scene for a monster-of-the-week X-files episode.
As a reminder, here's the book version:
A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.
Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss.
"Come no farther," the lordling warned. His voice cracked like a boy's. He threw the long sable cloak back over his shoulders, to free his arms for battle, and took his sword in both hands. The wind had stopped. It was very cold.
The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.
Ser Waymar met him bravely. "Dance with me then." He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold. Yet in that moment, Will thought, he was a boy no longer, but a man of the Night's Watch.
The Other halted. Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice. They fixed on the longsword trembling on high, watched the moonlight running cold along the metal. For a heartbeat he dared to hope.
They emerged silently from the shadows, twins to the first. Three of them . . . four . . . five . . . Ser Waymar may have felt the cold that came with them, but he never saw them, never heard them. Will had to call out. It was his duty. And his death, if he did. He shivered, and hugged the tree, and kept the silence.
The pale sword came shivering through the air.
Ser Waymar met it with steel. When the blades met, there was no ring of metal on metal; only a high, thin sound at the edge of hearing, like an animal screaming in pain. Royce checked a second blow, and a third, then fell back a step. Another flurry of blows, and he fell back again.
Behind him, to right, to left, all around him, the watchers stood patient, faceless, silent, the shifting patterns of their delicate armor making them all but invisible in the wood. Yet they made no move to interfere.
Again and again the swords met, until Will wanted to cover his ears against the strange anguished keening of their clash. Ser Waymar was panting from the effort now, his breath steaming in the moonlight. His blade was white with frost; the Other's danced with pale blue light.
Then Royce's parry came a beat too late. The pale sword bit through the ringmail beneath his arm. The young lord cried out in pain. Blood welled between the rings. It steamed in the cold, and the droplets seemed red as fire where they touched the snow. Ser Waymar's fingers brushed his side. His moleskin glove came away soaked with red.
The Other said something in a language that Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking.
Ser Waymar Royce found his fury. "For Robert!" he shouted, and he came up snarling, lifting the frost-covered longsword with both hands and swinging it around in a flat sidearm slash with all his weight behind it. The Other's parry was almost lazy.
When the blades touched, the steel shattered.
A scream echoed through the forest night, and the longsword shivered into a hundred brittle pieces, the shards scattering like a rain of needles. Royce went to his knees, shrieking, and covered his eyes. Blood welled between his fingers.
The watchers moved forward together, as if some signal had been given. Swords rose and fell, all in a deathly silence. It was cold butchery. The pale blades sliced through ringmail as if it were silk. Will closed his eyes. Far beneath him, he heard their voices and laughter sharp as icicles.
When he found the courage to look again, a long time had passed, and the ridge below was empty.
He stayed in the tree, scarce daring to breathe, while the moon crept slowly across the black sky. Finally, his muscles cramping and his fingers numb with cold, he climbed down.
Royce's body lay facedown in the snow, one arm outflung. The thick sable cloak had been slashed in a dozen places. Lying dead like that, you saw how young he was. A boy.
He found what was left of the sword a few feet away, the end splintered and twisted like a tree struck by lightning. Will knelt, looked around warily, and snatched it up. The broken sword would be his proof. Gared would know what to make of it, and if not him, then surely that old bear Mormont or Maester Aemon. Would Gared still be waiting with the horses? He had to hurry.
Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him.
His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin. A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye.
The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw.
The broken sword fell from nerveless fingers. Will closed his eyes to pray. Long, elegant hands brushed his cheek, then tightened around his throat. They were gloved in the finest moleskin and sticky with blood, yet the touch was icy cold.
Wow, the show hasn't aired more than 15 minutes of footage and already this thread has gone into crazy fanboi land. Kudos.
For the record, I really liked the rest of the stuff.
It's stark.. GET IT????
It was a decent 14+ minutes. The rest of you need to give it a rest already.
--- Alan
Of course this will go into crazy fanboi land.
I did crazy fanboi monologue for my GF's benefit while watching it
In order of commentary.
OMG, his hair should be long
Christ, and his gear should be better
Where are the interior gates. WHERE ARE THEY
Are you kidding me, the wall is right by the wildlings. Impossible.
A viking Other? What the hell - they are ALIENS. ALIENS.
Run! Run! Ignore your horse, good idea!
Did you see the giant red tree in Winterfell? No . . . Noob.
OMG, he is 8 years old, not 10
And he is FOUR. FOUR!
Does he have a squid on his shirt? Does he? Rewind it. I don't see a squid.
...wow.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/04/04/ga...ge-r-r-martin/
Yeah, this thread is going to be just about worthless. I can't wait for non-readers to come in having enjoyed the show and have anal fanboys trounce all over them.
Here's what a rational person should think: Is this different? Yes. Does it matter? No. 99% of the complaints in this thread are absolutely meaningless.
All that, and not one of you noticed the one difference that to ME was actually major. Theon didn't kick the head. Quite disappointing, such a great piece of character detail for a character that doesn't get much in book 1. But I assume they'll do something similar later on.
Meaningless my ass.
The changes to the prologue are for the worse and commanded by executives who know zero of what they are producing.
If you are changing something then you need a good motivation. As far I've seen the prologue is the worst part by far among those 14 minutes, and it's entirely because of changes.
For me, the point is not that they did it differently, but that it just wasn't very good.
The opening scene felt cheap and cliché-ridden. Like a Twilight Zone episode.
Dude, if the HBO executives were as bad as you put it then I'd expect something PG-13 with no sex, no gore, no nudity, and no risks. AKA, network television.
This is HBO, and HBO's mantra is to trust the talent. The type of executives you talk about would never have greenlit The Wire, or Treme, or Deadwood.
And I was just chatting with someone who has read the books *and* who has the preview screeners (legitimately, I might add), and he and I discussed the preview and he said he "loved" the prologue. And I was chatting with another friend whose husband (who never read the books) thought the prologue was suspenseful. So I wouldn't call it a disaster.
The sword shattering from the cold was a great scene in the books and I was definitely disappointed it didn't make it in to the prologue. I'm sure I'll love the series anyway, and I can't wait to see the realization of all my other favourite scenes.
Yeah the changes to the prologue ENTIRELY RUINS THE ENTIRE SHOW FOR ME and shows an obvious plethora of contempt for the normal viewer. Game of Thrones will utterly fail because alas Wil survived (at least for a time), not Gared. And the White Walkers are SCARY.
Wow. Just wow.
I'm pretty sure, based solely on the previews, that if people didn't like the Prologue they'll go fucking apeshit over the confrontation between Ned and Jamie outside the brothel.
--- Alan
I mentioned it, but I edited it out because I went into excruciating detail about how I would would want it to end up. You're right though, it's a nice bit of character building that's unfortunately left out.
As for the Others, I was expecting the change in their appearance. I couldn't imagine the show having the special effects budget to pull that off.
I am going to bare my soul here. I have never read these books. I have read about them, and watched a thousand threads float by dealing with this twist or that character. After King forgot the Dark Tower for 10 years and The Wheel of Time, I wasn't going to start another series with a grand-procrastinator at the helm. Particularly one who killed characters like he was speed-dating at a retirement home.
That being said, I am really excited for the show. It has a fantastic look and I never get tired of Sean Bean since he has moved past the bad guy stage of his career. How much of the books will this season cover? LOTR style a book at a time or something divided differently? It looks like it will be fun while it lasts.
Also, fanboiz on parade ITT.
One book.
And seriously, rhino, start a spoiler-free thread for non-book-readers!
Scans of the big EW story this week.
http://community.livejournal.com/ohn.../57949765.html
Also, The New Yorker has a big article, but the entirety of it is locked behind its website. You gotta be a subscriber of the mag.
TIME is going to have a big article soon. Their TV writer Poniewozik loves the books and he's been hinting that the episodes he's seen are awesome, but he flew out to New Mexico last week to interview GRRM. (TIME's book critic, Lev Grossman, is a huge fan of Martin's and is the one who originally called him "The American Tolkien").
I loved the first fifteen minutes.
There were little things I didn't like, like how the wights reminded me a bit too much of 28 days later, but all in all it was amazing. I can't believe this is really happening.
You guys are hilarious. The beginning was fine.
It's a TV show. Changes have to be made.
The Others always had a strong component of "zombie like entity", it's just until you have watched them instead of reading about them, you didn't realized the connection.
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