Game of Thrones

German Style!

Game of Thrones: The TV Series

So… I’m currently in Germany. You would think a month in Germany would be full of endless adventure, but my cousin who I’m staying with works for a living. This means from early in the morning until around five o’clock at night, I’m left to my own devices with only my legs for transportation and my natural inclination to avoid people at its peak. So, I’m in Germany… watching U.S. TV shows that my cousin happens to have. I know I can’t be the first tourist to do this.

Good thing I’m here for a month and I already have plans to visit Switzerland, Norway and Castles.

Speaking of castles, one of the shows I’ve watched while I was here was the first season of Game of Thrones, an HBO TV series based on the series A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin starring a number of big name actors and actresses from a number of well-known movies and TV Series. The most notable of these actors is Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.

One of these days I’ll go into detail on my love of little people in cinema and how much I love to see them in major cinematic rolls in which they play characters who don’t necessarily have to be little people. I know from things I’ve read about Warwick Davis that one of his biggest dreams was to be able to do that. And it pleased me to no end when I saw Peter Dinklage in shows like Threshold and the movie Penelope where he played a character who, for all intents and purposes, was completely normal. However, I can’t go beyond that because this is about a show where the whole point of Tyrion Lannister is that he is short, considered ugly, and his life has been hell for it. However, that said, Tyrion Lannister is one of the most interesting characters in the show and you never really know what side he’s on, but you can bet your ass it’s the winning side. That’s the Lannister way, after all.

A Game of Thrones takes place is a world where the seasons are somewhat out of balance. Summers last years. Winters last lifetimes. In the medieval nation of Westeros, ruled by King Robert Baratheon, Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms (called Westeros by foreigners). The action begins in Winterfell, the most northern part of the country, which is ruled by Lord Eddard Stark, Robert’s childhood friend and long-time ally. Before the series began, Robert and Eddard fought in a war against the former rulers of the Seven Kingdoms, the Targaryen Dynasty, which began in glory and ended in madness. Now, they are old, with children of their own and trying to make the best future possible for their own children.

This is all interrupted when The Hand of the King, Lord Arryn, dies of a fever. King Baratheon needs a new Hand and Lord Stark looks like an ideal candidate. Stark doesn’t want the job, however, because there have been some omens, he’s comfortable in the North, and winter is coming. Then a number of events happen implying that Lord Arryn’s death was murder, so Stark takes the job to get to the bottom of it and the king is a very happy, fat, drunkard.

In the midst of this, Stark’s children all have things going on of their own. His bastard, Jon Snow has decided to join the Night’s Watch, a group of men who man the Wall that separates the true north of the country from the civilized “south” and protects it from the barbaric Wildlings. His daughter, Arya, must go with her father to the King’s lands and come to terms with her tomboyishness. Sansa is engaged to the king’s son who is fickle, selfish, cowardly, and extremely handsome… but strangely looks nothing like his father. Bran must come to terms with a personal tragedy. Robert, the oldest, must try to fill his father’s shoes and grow up fast while his father is away. And everyone must look extremely emotionless while doing it… for some reason.

Then there’s the scheming Queen Cersei Lannister and her brother, Jaime Lannister, Kingslayer. She’s the King’s wife and he’s her twin brother. Oh yeah, and they’re in an incestuous relationship that they mush hide from everyone. Otherwise, people might begin to rightly question the legitimacy of their children. After all, Robert’s a brunette and Cersei has golden blonde hair. How is it that all of their children are golden blonde like Mommy Dearest? These guys are so greasy you want them to lose everything they have, but part of you wants them to stay victorious just a little while longer so the fall will be all that more sweeter. You know, “I win! I win! I win! I lost?! EVERYTHING!!! I’ll KILL Y—“ (Insert sound of Lannisters losing their heads collectively.)

As if that’s not enough, south of the Seven Kingdoms, the last two Targaryens still live: Daenerys and her brother, Viserys. Viserys, obviously, wants his crown back and he’ll do anything to get it. Including marry his sister off to a barbaric Dothraki ruler, Khal Drogo. This is considered bad by Daenerys because the Targaryen dynasty has been continuing the line via incest for centuries. Then again, I never really saw why because her brother is depicted as nothing better than a worm. I actually spend most of the first season waiting for him to die. In fact, I upset my cousin by asking her repeatedly when I got to watch him die. She eventually told me that you never see it. I nearly ordered the book online so I could throw it at her.

Back in Westeros (you can tell the difference because everyone is half-naked with the Targaryens while in Westeros everyone is fully clothed unless they’re in a brothel), Tyrion Lannister is the most fun character. You don’t really know what he’s doing or whose side he’s on. Ostensibly, he works for his own family, but… he seems to have more fun making them angry than angering the whole of the Seven Kingdoms. He begins the series in Winterfell with everyone else. He goes to The Wall with Jon Snow. Then he… travels quite a bit, drinks, and hires a lot of whores. Part of the trouble with figuring out which side Tyrion is on is that… he doesn’t spend a lot of time in the main action. He moves around on his own messing about in events as he sees fit. Though it’s obvious that he’s a Lannister at heart, he has no love of his family, which has treated him worse than everyone combined despite the fact that they’re his family. Then again, he’s a dwarf, and I have a soft spot for them… for some reason. Either way, I can’t wait to watch Season Two and find out more about him.

I will eventually watch season two and give you my thoughts. I’ll also provide you with thoughts and comments about the books. I’ve started with the first book already and I may do a comparison. For five years I’ve told myself that I have to look into these books and this series is getting me into them faster than the Lord of the Rings movies have managed to make me pick up those books again.

The TV series does a fairly good job of depicting the events that I’ve read about so far, missing only a few things and aging up the younger characters. I’ve noticed that the series doesn’t waste time. There is limited time and a lot of material to cover. I may not have read the books, but I can tell from looking that they’re doorstoppers. What I’ve read so far doesn’t waste words either. This isn’t Tolkien making love to the scenery, people. This is painting a picture of the land, not by waxing poetic, but by action, character behavior, and the very words the characters use. So, I know a lot is probably going to end up missing from the book series, but the TV series is still good.

What’s my biggest complaint? I don’t know what went wrong, but the actress playing Daenerys ends up looking more like she’s missing a bunch of mental faculties than whatever that actress was going for. It took me a long time to accept that this girl was the great hope of the Targaryen Dynasty. Her brother was a filthy worm, but at least he didn’t run around with a vacant expression all the time.  I like to think that maybe the vacant expression was an attempt at showing that Daenerys was pretty much innocent at the beginning of the series, but I’m not sure because the expression does fade. However, that could be me getting used to ignoring it rather than go mad from frustration or maybe the actress was growing into her role and realizing that vacant expressions aren’t acting. We’ll never know! Either way, I wanted to smack her multiple times. Which is bad because in the book, Daenerys is growing to be my favorite along with Tyrion. So… WHY???

Other than that, hiccup… I really like the TV series. Yes, there is a lot of sex and I haven’t even gone into the brilliance/possible lack-there-of that is Little Finger because I want to watch Season Two in full before I make my judgment. Though the man has a huge impact on the ending, I just don’t know what to make of him. He’s just… I don’t know. Sometimes I like him. Sometimes I don’t. The actor playing him did a really good job, but… He’s a really frustrating character. I want to like him. I do! But… he’s like Vincent Price. 

He’s a gentleman, he’s likeable when he wants to be… but you never know if he’s going to turn around and stab you in the back or not and I can’t really like someone like that unless they do it really well. And… I don’t know if he does it really well. The events unfold like he does do it very well, but…  I think part of it was that I knew what was going to happen at the end of the first season.

I may not have read the books, but I’ve visited TV Tropes so many times and surfed so many pages that it would be hard for me to miss the Game of Thrones bits without getting spoiled a little. So I knew what was going to happen and watching the series was like watching a train wreck. You know what’s going to happen, but you can’t look away. And some of the characters are so fucking cool! I like being spoiled for movies and TV series sometimes. I really do. Even some books! However… I can’t help but wonder just how I would’ve reacted if I didn’t know certain things about certain characters. The only spoilers I really let in are the things I didn’t think were spoilers per se. I hope you feel my sacrifice because I would love to tell you every single detail, every twist and turn, and so on.

However, this series needs to be seen… and unlike the Tudors, the sex doesn’t make me feel good about myself at all. Most of the boobs are bigger than mine.

Sweet Dreams!