THE BAREST BARATHEON, A BEAR NO MORE: When Loras Tyrell, the Knight of the Flowers, showed up on-screen last night, I explained to Spacewoman that he's kind of the Justin Bieber of knighthood. But his scene with Renly Baratheon a little later -- was that the first major plot departure from the novel, or was I just too dense to read what GRR Martin was writing? (And please don't comment on anything that's coming later than this point in the books.)
In other Westeros news: a lot of poking, stabbing, and piercing. And there was some violence, too.
I am not sure how to both answer your question and NOT talk about things later, so I will just say that while it is never as specific in the books as it was last night, there are certainly more references later in the series that make it more clear.
ReplyDeleteI got caught up this weekend by watching episodes 4 and 5, reading the episode recaps from the first three, referencing the chart linked here last week and then asking my friend who has read the books a bunch of questions. (I will watch the first three episodes soon.) I really enjoyed it. I think I'm going to finish watching this season without knowing what's going to happen, then crack open the books and read ahead before I just ruin the books and series for myself by gobbling up the Wiki pages.
ReplyDeleteApparently the pacing was much slower in the first three episodes, but I thought last night was just some fantastic stuff. And Tommy Carcetti being weasely with Alec Trevelyan! Two thumbs up.
That was a great scene, the one-upping with secrets. But I did miss both Dany and Jon Snow this week. And no direwolves! I realize that Bran was the only character this week who still possesses a direwolf, but still. I want to see those puppies.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm beginning to believe that they have not yet cast Rickon.
If, like me, you've read the books and are too dim/memory-impaired to have caught on to the subtext that last night made text, this list is very helpful (spoilers, of course).
ReplyDeleteYes, by missing the first three episodes, I missed out on most of the direwolves. That will be remedied.
ReplyDeleteIIRC, that was strongly implied subtext in the novels, but it was something that I definitely picked up on.
ReplyDeleteRickon isn't in the show much, because he's too busy on Twitter.
Next week, HBO will be both running episode 6 and then releasing episode 7 on HBO GO on Sunday, too. I guess to give everyone who's planning to go away Memorial Day weekend a chance to see the episode in advance.
HBO normally doesn't air original programming on holiday weekends (they'll often use them for "catch up" marathons), so that's kind of a surprise move.
ReplyDeleteThe books aren't particular explcit with regards to sex one way or another. While there are plenty of scenes where people have sex, and discuss sex, and think about sex, most of the nuts and bolts are off page.
ReplyDeleteNone of the first person characters in the novels were any of the ones implied as being homosexual, so it makes sense that for those characters the only notion of their sexuality is whispers, and whether or not they've produced bastards or have wives regularly pregnant.
Martin seems like he's being consistent with his setting, sexuality as an identity is a very recent construct, so as long as a high-born man did his duty with his wife often enough to have a few legitimate heirs, who else he did (with discretion if they were of equal social status) was irrelevant.
Given the different narrative structure of the TV show, being explicit where the books were implicit makes sense, in most cases it's much easier and entertaining to show rather than tell.
Speaking of telling, I for one, applaud the 'expository dump during sex scenes' technique being used by this show. Previous HBO shows have done this (Deadwood, Rome), but never to this degree. More SyFy shows might be watchable if they were able to come up with a PG13 version of this.
I just loved, loved love the added in scene of a conversation between Robert and Cersei. Sad, funny, bittersweet and acted the hell out of it by Addy and Headey.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that, in addition to the subtext, Martin has confirmed the Renly / Loras relationship in several interviews.
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