Finally, I can post about A Game of Thrones

[trinityvixen]

I finished the book a while ago (and am even within a week or three of finishing the second book!) but I had yet to watch the show. Honestly, I needed to give it time between book and show or it would end up being like Lord of the Rings all over again. I read The Fellowship of the Ring all of two days before seeing the movie and I was (it pains me to admit) almost bored by the movie because I was watching things I'd just read. (Funny how that doesn't work with seeing a movie more than once--by the time I'd seen Fellowship a second time, I was hooked.)

It was a good decision to wait. I've only watched one episode so far, and I already need a break. My mental images of the characters are completely out of alignment with the actors on the show. I can't tell any of the Stark boys apart. (One of them must be Theon, but don't ask me which one.) Despite repeated remarks about Catelyn Stark's red hair, I always pictured her as a blonde and much younger than the woman on the show (though it makes no sense that she'd be young since she has a child of fifteen). About the only person I adore is Sean Bean as Eddard Stark, but it's Sean Bean and saying I adore him is like saying I like to breathe. Arya is good, I suppose. She has the right hungry look. Cersei and Jamie Lannister are completely wrong. I don't get the vicious coldness I've come to expect from her from Lena Headey, and whoever is playing Jamie offends me. The one scene where that useless douchebag tried to start something with Lord Sean Bean Stark I was all, "NUH-UH, YOU DO NOT GET IN THE BEAN'S WAY, YOU PRICK."

Anyway, I'll get around to the rest of the series, but not in any hurry. I'd much rather make progress (and there is so much progress to make) on the sequel. I did come across this article about the female nudity on the show (spoilers for the end!) which I suppose will become much more grating as I get through the series. Unfortunately, I came to through this blog post telling this woman objecting to the objectification of women for no conceivable narrative purpose that she should shut the fuck up (and, presumably, since that's what women in these trolls' mindset are good for, shake her moneymakers). Reading feminist blogs has perhaps shielded me more than usual against this sort of lazy sexism. I'd forgotten how troglodytic is is. (Some commenter actually says that it's fine to have all the tits all the time because it's in the book! It's not the book's fault sexism happened in the Middle Ages! Even if the book is fantasy and not set during this Earth's Middle Ages at all!) ::rolls eyes::

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I am SO WITH that article. It was something I noticed about Rome--the constant panning past people fucking. And if they were trying to go for an R rating, that was unnecessary--the level of violence was sufficient.

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

It's definitely something they're pretty amazingly unsubtle about. It gets particularly weird when we get to the "sexposition" scenes (though some of them are actually pretty good).

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

At least Rome offered a good deal of cock to balance out the tits. Honestly, with something where the sexes are equally like to be nude at any given time, it becomes more background than anything else. Take Spartacus: Blood and Sand (please!). By the time you get to the orgy half way through the series, you're like yaaaaawn, nudity. It ceases to shock if it's not all about tits and ass in weird places for no reason.

I still agree with the article. Having boobs everywhere does not prove U R SRS ADULT.

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

Cersei and Jamie Lannister are completely wrong.

I realized that one of the reasons they worked for me is that their portrayals in the show definitely jive more with how their character development has grown over the course of 5 books.

The vicious coldness will definitely come, and Jamie definitely gets better over the course of the show.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Peter Dinklage, who is awesomeness made flesh in this show.

[shell524.livejournal.com]

Peter Dinklage is awesome, but way too pretty to be Tyrion. :p

The people I watched the show with and I were reminded of Denis Leary when we saw Jaime Lannister. So we spent most of the show with the asshole song popping up when he was on-screen.

For the most part, I've been happy with the casting. Other things have bothered me, but TV hasn't seen them yet.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

He does look like Dennis Leary. He also looks less pretty, in general, than I think he should, or that I've been led to believe he would by stills I've seen of him. It's just weird. If he were too pretty, I'd never believe he was reliably ruthless, but he's too rough for me to believe anyone fawns over him.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine pointed out that Tyrion wouldn't have to be actually ugly to be treated as such; he's a dwarf, that's enough for the assholes in the story to abuse him and claim he's hideous even if the reality was that he's not.

I don't recall offhand if they actually said in what ways he was supposed to be ugly, but since we only see through POV characters, I almost believe that the reality could be he looks just like Peter Dinklage and no one has functioning eyes.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I mean, I watched one episode and I'm unimpressed with them. I'm sure that will change. But I so loathe them as characters, I just have doubts any actor could make me hate them as much as they deserve so I end up disliking them for not making me dislike them enough. Wow, that makes no sense.

Peter Dinklage is doing some good work already, though nothing to what will come, I'm certain, given Tyrion's plot arch. Mostly, he grounds Tyrion in reality for me. It's one thing to read the book and go, "Okay, dwarf," and another to see someone with that physical trait acting alongside everyone else being taller than him. It really improves the character, if only by rendering immediately and irreversibly obvious what he's gone through all his life in this fucked up world.

[fairest.livejournal.com]

I was disappointed with Cersei's casting, and Jon Snow's, and I was similarly unable to discern Jon from Robb from Theon early on. I didn't like the look of any of them; the visual fit felt wrong. Ditto for some characters who come later -- not bad choices necessarily, just not a mental image match.

I loved the look of Daenerys (& Viserys), but I'm unhappy about how they handled her wedding night scene with Drogo, which was totally disempowering for the character (versus the book version).

The other characters I find fit pretty well, though again, I've only seen the first few episodes. I can't comment on the nudity or sex just yet either -- there are certainly gratuitous tits, but they're at HBO-expected (if still ridiculous) levels. I don't think I've hit any of the offensive scenes people have cited in the articles.

I'm excited now to see the last-episode scene the article references. :)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I don't see any of the Stark children clearly enough to object to this or that face, aside from Robb being obviously too old, but their faces were for me as you describe: wrong.

Daenerys came out okay, but Viserys is ridiculous. Good thing I won't have to put up with him long. Drogo is actually pretty good, although bigger than I expected. My mental image of him is somewhat slimmer, but I expected horse lords to be more Native American than WWE wrestler. I didn't like the wedding night shit either. It makes it hard to see why Daenerys gives a shit about him later.

[shell524.livejournal.com]

I loved the look of Daenerys (& Viserys), but I'm unhappy about how they handled her wedding night scene with Drogo, which was totally disempowering for the character (versus the book version).

This. This is what I was referring to in my comment.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

Cersei is sooooooooo wrong. And I love Lena Headey, but just no. She's bad. Jamie is kind of how I pictured him, and at least not offensive to me, but not amazing.

I also can't tell the Stark kids apart, and Jon Snow is pretty forgettable.

Sansa looks way too old; I can't tell if they aged her up for less creepiness, or if they just expect us to believe that girl is 12 or 14, however old Sansa was. Danerys was meant to be 14, and I know they supposedly aged her up to 19 in the tv series... but then cast an actress who still looked 14, so... still creepy!

And, this is probably blasphemy, but Sean Bean is SO NOT NED STARK to me. I just don't see it. Ned had more of a coldness about him and Sean Bean is a little too likeable.