YOU SHOULD GET SOME SLEEP. IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG WAR: A long war, maybe, but a short episode of Game of Thrones. I did the math after last week, and thought, wow, there's a lot of ground to cover this week. I'd guess that the formula was 75% of the book in the first nine episodes. So if this episode seemed a little rushed, I suppose they can't all be "Baelor." A large spoilery thought after the jump:
The one plot thing that I think this season didn't do effectively was set up the importance of the dragons. In the books, you get a fair bit of history making it clear that the dragons weren't just powerful as symbols of the Targaryen dynasty (and dwindling in size as the Targaryens descended into despotism), but also as the tools that brought the Targaryens to power. There were long explanations of how huge armies marched against Aegon (the first Targaryen king) and were just burned to a crisp by his dragons. The proper analogy would be if the Lannisters and the Starks went to war, but the Lannisters had three fully-equipped F-16s to fly close air support.
So the scene when Khal Drogo's funeral pyre burned itself out, leaving Dany with three newly-hatched dragons -- I'm not sure there was enough background in the series to make it clear how shocking that would be. There are a couple dozen remaining from Drogo's retinue, all but Jorah Mormont getting ready to strike out on their own the moment they're finished burying their former boss, because the custom is either to be, or to hitch yourself to, the most powerful warlord. And then crazy Mrs. Boss quietly walks into the fire (in her wedding gown), lets it burn to the ground, and suddenly she's sitting there, unharmed, on top of three fully-equipped F-16s. You could sack a lot of towns with three F-16s. And that's how Viserys's meek little teenaged sister becomes a warlord. I'm just not sure the show caught the holy-shitness of that moment.
Anyway, I fear that the episode was a little flat, and mostly transitional, setting things up for next season. Arya and Gendry (King Robert's bastard from earlier in the season) are headed for the wall, Jon and the Night's Watch are headed for the wildling army and the White Walkers, the Lannisters are headed to war with Robb and his Northmen on one side and Renly Baratheon and his Southerners on the other, Tyrion is headed to King's Landing to take the reins from Cersei and Joffrey, Dany is headed somewhere with her tiny F-16s, and the only person who's not going anywhere is poor red-eyed Sansa, truly her father's daughter in her misreading of every strategic cue, whose bedroom window now has the worst view of all time. To be continued in nine and a half months.
As a non-book reader, I thought the final moment had plenty of holy-shitness (and power and beauty).
ReplyDeleteAnd it's more than that -- Arya and Gendry aren't headed to the Wall until the beginning of Clash of Kings.
ReplyDeleteBefore this season started, I was worried about how the adaptation would turn out, and a bit cynical that it would be possible to translate this story to the screen at all.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the season, I'm amazed at how great of a job they did with the adaptation and can't think of a single thing that could have been improved upon (as I think more coverage of certain details like dragons would have led to less coverage of others).
Spring 2012 is coming
Also, that final scene needs to be noted by HBO for "how you incorporate nudity in a way that's not exploitative/gratuitous."
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting that they're officially saying Spring 2012 for the return, rather than holding for summer. Wonder what it gets paired with--this "Inglourious Basterds with magic" show seems a likely fit, and I assume the Sorkin pilot gets paired with Treme for two hours of political lectures a week.
I'd guess that the formula was 75% of the book in the first nine episodes.
ReplyDeleteNo, it was more of 90/10 split. In my copy, Ned is executed on page 608 of 674. A lot happens in those last 65 pages - in some ways, more than the series, as I don't think the northern army got to Riverrun in last night's episode.
As someone who had never heard of the books before reading about the show, it took a while for me to get into the series. Figuring out who was who during the first couple episodes almost did me in. The only person I could remember was Peter Dinklage, because he played the "South Pole Elf" in "Elf." Because I didn't have the backstory of the importance of the dragons, I didn't really get the holy shit moment at the end, but I did get the idea that it's a game-changer.
ReplyDeleteI was talking about the show with a friend who's an avid fan of the books about how I like the show because it's fantasy but not full of dragons and magic, which I usually hate. She has a very good poker face because I didn't figure out this was coming. So the show sucked me in with the relationships and political drama and has me just as interested to see how the dragons play into the rest of it. Can't wait until Spring 2012!
I'm trying to say where they appear to be at the end of this episode.
ReplyDeleteI just started reading the books, and it drew out a parallel--the first scene in the main action of the book (excluding the "North of The Wall" prologue) is Bran watching Ned execute a deserter, accompanied with a lecture on that Ned is a "good lord" because he carries out the sentence himself, while weaker men leave it for others to do on their orders--drew a further interesting contrast between Ned, the good man afraid to win, and Joffrey and Cersei, who are not good people, but willing to do anything to win.
ReplyDeleteThat scene was also the first scene in the main action of the TV series (excluding the "North of the Wall" prologue), the only differences between the two being that (a) it was snowing in the book; and (b) the guy being executed was 45-ish instead of 20-ish. But they still had the bit about Ned telling Bran that in the North, unlike in the South, it is important for the person who passes judgment to be the one who swings the sword.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the dragons exist, and there's a slight but definite upward trend in magic over the next three books, but for the most part it's still at its base a series about people being shitty to each other in a non-magical way.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that. I've been worried the last couple of weeks, since I read the book, that the final scene of the season, which ought to be a holy-shit moment, and would have a lot to do with how non-book readers anticipated the second season, was probably dependent on CGI effects, which could so easily just look ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteFor book-readers who want to see the final image of Dany and her new F-16: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.aoltv.com/media/2011/06/game-of-thrones-dragon.jpg
ReplyDeleteYes, I can see that scene having gone very poorly had the CGI been terrible (side note: should we now refer to using terrible CGI as "pulling a Green Lantern"?).
ReplyDeleteSome of the Green Lantern CGI was quite good, but yes, much of it was not.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm in, even with the dragons. It's kinda sad that my drama preferences can be boiled down to liking to watch "<span>people being shitty to each other in a non-magical way."</span>
ReplyDeleteI am an avid reader/watcher and I think the important of dragons was set up very well (not as well as the book, of course, but that is to be expected). They are referenced quite a bit: Viserys in the bathtub talking about the dragon skulls, Arya encountering the massive dragon skulls, Dany and Ser Jorah at the market talking about conquest...even this episode had the Greatjon naming Robb as King in the North because Joff has no dragons to make them bend the knee. Any more than that (along with all the evidence that Dany is impervious to heat/fire, and had a connection to the eggs) would be overkill...just no way to get too deep into the history without people complaining about too much exposition.
ReplyDeleteBut those were little hints, little color. I don't think that they resonated, that a viewer would get what a bid deal tactically a dragon would be.
ReplyDeleteI think any fairly intelligent person can figure out that a guy on a dragon has a big advantage over a guy on a horse without it needing to be explained in detail.
ReplyDeleteI guess I prefer the small hints and color. Either way, you can't please everyone. My point is that if they had driven home the point more (and I am not sure how they would do this), then there would be people complaining about HBO beating us over the head with dragons, and their hatching may have been less of a surprise.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree with BK's point below...
I think that's Isaac's point - you're supposed to think that a dragon has an advantage over a thousand men on horseback.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Isaac, I didn't read the books, but did pick up on the hints about the dragons. I expected that Dany was going to live through the fire, and that the dragon eggs would hatch at some point. Still though, in watching the final scene, I missed the magnitude of it, even being disappointed that the first season ended there. It wasn't until reading the threads here that I got it - that Dany is now equipped to be a real contender for the throne, even more so than when she had her powerful husband.
ReplyDeleteOf course, as Season 2 develops, there is going to be plenty of reason -- and plenty of occasion -- to do some flashbacks to the earlier wars to show what a dragon can do.
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