Quibbles (PROBABLE SPOILERS!! Non-readers, play safe and stay out)

[NickeeCoco]

Wow, people are still going on about this? First of all, Ned is supposed to be 35 in the books but the show has aged him up to 50. Hence, Cat is aged up as well. Also, most people seem to be loving Michelle Fairley's portrayal so far (she brings some sympathy and realism to the character).

I know I'm a little late in this, but I'm going to comment anyway.

Since this is set in a more medieval time period, people, at the age of 35 or 30, would look older than people at the age of thirty and 35 do now. Harsher living and lack of medicine does that. I think they look right for the period. I mean, 35 would have been considered getting up there in age. People often died at 40. Because these people are nobles, therefore have a bit better of a lifestyle (Though, often they did tend to eat more meat than the commoners, so they did, at times, become mal-nourished, whereas the commoners ate more vegetables and got more nutrients. . . when they ate.) they might live to 55, maybe even 60. Let's say one of the nobles does live to 55, he's going to look more like 65 or maybe even 70. He'd be considered ancient.

[kged]

Admittedly this is a complaint about the brutal and unrewarding nature of life in general, rather than the show directly, but it has come to my attention that as soon as tonight's episode has aired in the states, US viewers will be able to immediately watch the next episode via the HBO site. This elicits a firm and throaty

>> WTF <<

from me. What are they thinking? It's stupid. It's senseless. It's not fair. And it'll screw up websites like our own dear SFFW, too. I hereby call upon all US posters to voluntarily forego the opportunity to get a week ahead, and show solidarity with your international brethren.

[thirstyVan]

I hereby call upon all US posters to voluntarily forego the opportunity to get a week ahead, and show solidarity with your international brethren.(

Hmletmethinkaboutit...Nope.

[huskylord]

My biggest gripe is the under use and downplay of the dire wolves.
I understand its a fine balance of whether to use CGI, but these direwolves look more cute than dangerous.

Makes me worry when the dragons do arrive

[chris777]

My biggest gripe is the under use and downplay of the dire wolves.
I understand its a fine balance of whether to use CGI, but these direwolves look more cute than dangerous.

Makes me worry when the dragons do arrive

They're puppies right now. Of course they are cute. This is the point in the story they start getting bigger than wolves. So some CGI will be required. I think they are downplayed a lot though. I love the Stark's relationship with the wolves and the show isn't really living up to that. Is that THAT essential to the story? Probably not. We don't really know having not read the last books. So I assume not since GRRM is involved in this production.

[kged]

Does gold really melt that quickly, that easily?

[DailyRich]

I'm wondering if the downplaying of certain elements (the other Stark children, the direwolves, etc) are part of a deliberate misdirection so that

Ned's death comes as more of a shock to first-time viewers. Between the advertising prominently featuring him on the Iron Throne and the fact that Sean Bean is the biggest name in the cast, many newbies are most likely certain he's going to be the lead character going forward. Keeping the show pretty Ned-centric is a good way to really pull the rug out from under them.

[Luya Sevrein]

Oooo, I love to moan about something I love. 8D Unfortunetly, It's not that long.

1] Lack of direwolves. I know, I know, cost, blah... HIRE A DOG TRAINER FROM MY COMMUNITY CENTER, SRSLY.

2] Too much Ros. I thought she was only an early episode exposition prop, but no, SHE LIVES ON.

3] King's Landing. I have the same gripes. Come Dorne and Mireen and such It'll seem so... indifferent.

4] Generally I'd like more establishing shots.

5] More scenes for the little people and general everyday discussion/character interaction.

6] More exciting fighting wouldn't go a miss, though I am loving Arya/Syrio and the Dothraki.

7] A longer season! QAQ It's so good!

I've had no problems with vocab, actually. I always said it 'KKI-' as well, and I'm English. But people always read things differently.

Oh, and 8] More Addy. Yes, George. Just bring him back.

...I know, George.

...I don't care George, just bring him back. Loved Addy.

[kged]

A question for any sociologists, economists, demographers etc who may be on the premises. In the rather maligned hunting scene, Renly said that "millions" died in Robert's War. Millions? Really? That seems far more than such a society could support, let alone lose. Am I wrong in this assumption?

[Luya Sevrein]

I'm not a sociologist, but;

Here goes.

Westeros is supposed to be the size of South America, right? Far bigger than England, in any route. That's one way I've heard - the second way is most of Western Europe, either way, bigger.

Today Millions can equate to one major city and it's districts. In those times, not so much.

In terms of army sizes - 40,000 Dothraki could pose a threat?

I seem to remember that someone only had 12,000 men at the Battle of Bosworth. The army sizes discussed for the Seven Kingdoms I don't remember, though. I'm sure Jaime didn't take too many to the Whispering Wood, but then, they did fail...

Probably just Renly being overly dramatic, though.

[3rdI]

My only real quibble is The Others. HBO totally screwed that up.

From GOT, Pages 8 and 9

"A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved, here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took."

"The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor."

Why HBO changed that is beyond me. Martin's description of The Others is superb. It has been so many years since I have read GOT that I forgot just how cool that section was. The HBO Others are almost comical in comparison.

[3rdI]

Oooo, I love to moan about something I love. 8D Unfortunetly, It's not that long.

1] Lack of direwolves. I know, I know, cost, blah... HIRE A DOG TRAINER FROM MY COMMUNITY CENTER, SRSLY.

Word. SRSLY. The direwolves are one of the most important aspects of the story.

[Palfrey]

Does gold really melt that quickly, that easily?

No, and I couldn't help but notice it didn't go over his eyes either.

[Luya Sevrein]

Does gold really melt that quickly, that easily?

Gold is a pretty flimsey metal. Having said that it's melting point is is 1337.33 K, 1064.18 &#176;C, 1947.52 &#176;F on estimate.

But, like we heard, some cities pay tribute to the Dothraki and with them being 'uneducated savages' and all, they likely just plated or painted the stuff. xD

[Ryuujin]

My only real quibble is The Others. HBO totally screwed that up.

From GOT, Pages 8 and 9

"A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved, here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took."

"The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor."

Why HBO changed that is beyond me. Martin's description of The Others is superb. It has been so many years since I have read GOT that I forgot just how cool that section was. The HBO Others are almost comical in comparison.

I don't think we actually saw one of the Others in the opening scene to GOT, just the wights. IIRC, I don't think we see anything but wights through the rest of the books so far, so it makes sense for HBO to hold off on designing an appearance and special effects for them now if they're not going to use them again for years, assuming the series lasts that long. It's similar to the reasoning for leaving out someone like...

10) Marillion

...who is completely non-essential to the trip to The Eyrie. Why cast and establish his character now when he doesn't appear again until near the end of ASOS?

A question for any sociologists, economists, demographers etc who may be on the premises. In the rather maligned hunting scene, Renly said that "millions" died in Robert's War. Millions? Really? That seems far more than such a society could support, let alone lose. Am I wrong in this assumption?

I'd chalk that up to screenwriter error. Most of the large scale troop movements described in the books seemed to be in the 10-40k man range, with the largest being around 100k. Though, given the pace at which the "smallfolk" are being killed...

----

My biggest quibble with the series so far has been the extraneous sex/nudity scenes - such as the manscaping scene and pretty much anything with Ros. I'd count them among the weakest scenes in the series. The sex + exposition combo just made them feel silly at times, and probably undermined the information being delivered, particularly in the Littlefinger scene. That's just the influence of HBO, I suppose, and only a small downside given they have the freedom to make other, more important scenes the right way.

To be fair, an example of this done right was the Viserys/Doreah scene where they took a Tyrion/Jon conversation from the book (about the dragon skulls) and gave it to Viserys to give him more screen time. It works out since they gave Tyrion a bunch of other characters' dialogue at the Wall, such as Donal Noye's lecture about Jon's training advantage.