5 Off My Head - The First Game of Thrones

That's quick - even though it only had moderately successful ratings, HBO's already renewed A Game of Thrones for a second season. Will they call the second season A Clash of Kings to follow the books? It might confuse people to change the name like that. Or rather it seems that that's a worry a TV executive would have.

Anyway I wanted to make a list of five thoughts I had while watching the first episode last night, but coming at it a day late I've already seen most of it covered. I'll direct you over to Sean again, because he's doing a bang-up job. I'll just say that I was mostly very very happy with the episode. It introduced a ton of important characters and the situations they'll be maneuvering through and manipulating pretty solidly, I thought. Everybody was at the very least good enough that I can't wait to see what they do with their bigger moments to come along. Alright, five quick fairly superficial thoughts. Don't expect this every week! I get lazy.

1. I have to say that while I was the least impressed with the look of Daenerys in pictures beforehand, I thought Emilia Clarke was fantastic. Really moving in her scenes. Although I can't exactly say I wouldn't be more welcoming to Jason Momoa's advances there at the end. Don't cry! He's gonna blow your mind.

2. Similarly, even though I've fawned over him plenty already I didn't really expect Nicholas Coster-Waldau to charm me as much as he did through the episode. I didn't think he'd live up to my expectations for Jamie Lannister since... well those are some pretty high expectations. The Kingslayer's tied with Arya as my favorite character from the books. (Speaking of, needs more Arya dammit!) He's got a fascinating path ahead of him and now I'm really very excited to watch NCW maneuver it.

3. I share all of Sean's reservations on the changes they've made with Catelyn, and I'm still not sold on Sean Bean as Eddard either. He just does not look or act at all like the Eddard I had in my head. He's too warm-natured, and too red-haired. Everybody else seems fine with him so maybe the picture I'd developed was wrong. I dunno. I have nothing against Sean Bean at all. There's just some dissonance with the Stark parents happening for me - their edges have been sanded down a bit. They're a little less interesting than they should be.

4. Speaking of dissonance and changes they made that Sean and I agree are causing such sensations, the aging up of the characters does make for some weird moments. The boyfriend and I had to have an entire conversation about how old girls are when they have their periods and how old that actress playing Sansa looks, and the fewer conversations I can have in my life about periods the better, ya know? Not to mention how much older Jon looks then he ought to when talking of being deprived of ever having a family life of his own when he talks to Benjen about going to the Wall.

5. But finally, thank you for this!

Kit Harrington has already won my favor.

ETA I was going to start a separate post on this but suppose it's not necessary - I saw something mention that we've got a gay storyline coming up in the series to look forward to but it's been so long I couldn't for the life of me remember what they were talking about. Then, with a little searching, I found this. There be spoilers there if you haven't read the books, but if you have read the books read the article and then read through the comments too; I thought it was a really fascinating conversation about that aspect of the books, which'd obviously slipped my mind.   

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