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Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming

Season 1, Episode 1

(Note: I will not allow my reflections on each episode to become a concordance for either the books or the television show. This thing is like the Bible; discussing it in specific terms would drive me insane. Threrefore, I will merely write about the things that interest me.)

So the first thing I notice is that they really know how to start a TV show. An undead child warrior with piercing blue eyes - along with other dark, zombielike creatures - decapitating wall guards like nameless henchmen in a Bond flick.

It's engaging. Then we move into a brief dialogue sequence involving Sean Bean and Bran...and right to an execution. (Note: It's the guy who escaped the bloodbath out by the Wall.)

The show is decidedly British, but I like that. Sean Bean brings a kind of weight and badassery to the role of Lord Stark, who is a favorite of mine from the book series. The prayer just before he lops off the wall guard's head has just enough gravitas to make me forget this is all a fantasy series.

Also, it should be noted that the decapitation scene introduces a major theme from the books that, I'm sure, will be present in the television series: manliness. One of the children - Bran? - is told not to look away, and the execution's bloodiness is meant to draw a reaction from the boy. And it does, but not enough to count. "You did well," one of the other characters says.

"The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword" is one of my favorite lines in any TV show I've watched in a while. (It's hard to avoid saying "AND IT'S TOTALLY FROM THE BOOK," so I'll go ahead and say that here, just to be certain I catch it all.) A dead deer or elk or something blocks their path at some point after the execution, and they wander off into the woods, where they find a group of wolfpups. Besides being UTTERLY ADORABLE, they are apparently coldblooded killers, so everyone is apparently afraid of them. A brief discussion precedes the wolf pups being handed out to the Stark children. It is seen as sort of a half-assed divination, but it still plays well on the screen. The bastard child gets the runt of the litter, a sixth pup.

Then we move to King's Landing: Capital of the Seven Kingdoms, where a dead priest or monarch is laid on stone. His eyes are covered with stones, on which eyes that look like something out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? are painted. A woman who looks like Robin Wright watches from the distance, and her brother shows up. They discuss which one worries too much - sister - and which one worries too little - brother. The dead man is Jon Arryn, I believe, and there is expositional talk about him "knowing something he shouldn't have" or some such thing.

We are taken back to the Starks, where Eddard Stark and his wife have an in-depth discussion next to a lake, while Stark cleans the sword he used to cut off the wall guard's head. She tells Stark that Jon Arryn is dead, and I seriously hope I'm not misspelling the name, but I'm typing so fast that I don't want to take a break to look.

ANYWAY, his wife, Catelyn, makes the pointed observation, that Jon Arryn was like a father figure to Eddard, so we probably need to know that little detail.

Everyone in Winterfall immediately goes into welcome wagon mode, because the king is on his way following the untimely death of the king's right hand man. (The king's name is Baratheon, but I might shorten it to Barry just to save myself some heartache and some keystrokes.)

One of the cooler wardrobe details is that some of the knights from the Southern kingdom have helmets shaped like wolf heads. It's pretty awesomely impressive.

Brief tangent: So far the story looks and feels exactly the way I thought it would. I am pleasantly surprised. Okay, back to the story. The king just arrived.

Baratheon looks EXACTLY how I imagined him! Im glad they're sticking closely to the text with regard to the characters' appearances, since appearance is so closely linked with personality here.

The caravan arrives, and instantly we feel the tension between the king and his wife (who is the Robin Wright lookalike from earlier. The king is robust, a big dude, and he laughs more easily than anyone else we've encountered thus far.

Ned and Baratheon catch up while they traipse through the hall of the kings (or something like that). The king asks him to be his right hand, The Hand of the King. Ned is understandably honored, but Barry (ha!) doesn't want him to feel the weight of the position. He just wants Ned to run the kingdom while he himself eats, drinks, and whores himself to an early grave.

One last, seemingly throwaway line is that they will join their houses by marrying off Ned's daughter to Barry's son.

...And our first nude scene. Tyrion Lannister gets head from a redheaded girl, but the full thrust of the act is interrupted by the other Lannister brother, Jamie, who is obviously unhappy in the North.

Oh, and slight sidebar: Tyrion is a little person. It doesn't matter, really, to the story, but if you haven't read the books or seen the show, then you will not know this. I also mention this because it plays heavily into why many people disregard Tyrion later on in the series.

We cut back to Barry and Ned, discussing the king's first wife, who is buried in the Stark mausoleum. She was Ned's sister, and that is one of the main connections between the two characters

We then go to Pentos, across the Narrov Sea. Daenerys Targaryen and her brother, whose name escapes me, have a discussion to show that she is levelheaded and he is obviously impressed by money. He awkwardly undresses and then caresses her. It's even more awkward to watch than it is to describe in a recap, I promise.

Daenerys meets her future husband, a Dothraki named Khal Drogo. He's "exotic", and it is noted that he has a ponytail down to his ass, a sign that he has never lost a battle. He doesn't speak but stares oddly at Daenerys for a minute before riding away. Her brother, Viserys, will not let her back out of the marriage, telling her that he would let Drogo's horses "fuck" her for the chance to get their kingdom back. (At the moment, I'm not sure which kingdom that is. I'm stupid.)

The self-centered, redheaded Stark sister really wants to marry Barry's son...and soon. She and her mother argue briefly before we move into a banquet scene.

Jon Snow is outside, practicing swordplay, when his uncle shows to kind of offer him a position on the Night Watch. The bastard son of Eddard Stark seems up for it, and tells his uncle so. His uncle disagrees somewhat, cautioning him about the prospect, but Jon Snow is determined, telling him that he thinks his father would most definitely sign off on the proposition.

Tyrion Lannister shows up, and he and Jon Snow bond over their outcast status. Tyrion even offers him some advice: "Never forget what you are; the rest of the world will not." It's actually a great line in a great place. It gives Tyrion some weight after his frolicking with a bedfull of whores in the previous scene.

Ned and the uncle discuss the kid Ned executed, the state of the wall, the wolf pups, and a few other things. Catelyn Stark and Cersei (the queen) have an awkward conversation while Baratheon fondles women in the main hall. Then Jaime and Ned have a conversation about fighting/not fighting in tournaments. Arya embarrasses Sansa (the self-centered redhead) by flinging food at her in front of her prospective husband.

A curious note arrives, says that Jon Arryn was murdered and the king is in danger. It implies that the Lannisters might be conspiring against the crown. The Lannisters are apparently an underhanded bunch, and there is an awkward air between Jaime and Cersei Lannister (brother and sister). Ned is obviously troubled by the news but does not want to act immediately.

Cut to Daenerys among the Dothraki. Khal Drogo looks vaguely like Dave Navarro from Jane's Addiction. Viserys is impatient. The Dothraki dance and fight and fornicate openly, and they are obviously meant to represent an Asian/Middle Eastern tribe, if we are drawing conclusions from existing cultures.

A former servant to Daenerys's family brings a chest full of, yep, dragon eggs, after which Khal Drogo and Daenerys depart to (I guess) consummate their marriage. Viserys tells her to "make him happy" so that he can get what he wants.

After the awkward, sort of rapey consummation scene, we cut back to Winterfell and another discussion about loyalty and friendship between Ned and Baratheon before they head back to the south. One of the wolf pups is glimpsed, and the youngest child, Bran, climbs up the side of the wall/castle.

Unfortunately, he hears sex sounds and waltzes in on Jaime Lannister having sex with...his sister (Cersei, the queen, wife of Baratheon.) After a brief discussion and some tense mugging between Jaime and Cersei, the brother shoves Bran out of the window, presumably to his death.

Aaaaand that's it for the first episode. It moves quickly, and though I think I would be utterly, completely, and totally lost had I not read the first book, somehow I still think I would have liked it. The thing about Game of Thrones is that it is written more pulpy than most high fantasy, in my opinion, and there is always something happening to keep interest. The high-minded Arthurian-speak is kept to a minimum, especially when events can be "shown" instead of "told." Also, I realize that I'm a season behind, but I plan on plowing through the first season to catch up with the second so that I can recap them, as well.

#television #tv #game of thrones #george r.r. martin

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