The Kingsroad

Last Updated on Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:15 Written by Kadomi Saturday, 30 April 2011 11:05

am woefully behind, but better a late recap of the show than none, eh?

The Kingsroad is the second episode of HBO’s show, and just like the first one, I really enjoyed it a lot. It follows the story of the early chapters pretty well.

As quick summary, Eddard Stark joins the king on their way down south on the Kingsroad, after speaking his farewells to his wife Catelyn who is griefing at Bran’s bedside, and Jon Snow, who is heading to the Wall to join the Night’s Watch. After the departure, someone stages a fire at Winterfell to distract everyone and tries to kill Bran Stark in his bed. Bran is defended by his direwolf Summer and his mother. On the Kingsroad, trouble brews when Prince Joffrey catches Arya and Micah the butcher’s boy playing at swords, is an ass in general, and gets his ass kicked by Arya and her wolf Nymeria. As revenge, the Lannisters have Sansa’s wolf Summer killed, and Arya sends Nymeria away. On the other continent, Danaerys Targaryen gets used to her life as the khaleesi, spends more time looking weepy at dragon eggs and actually manages to teach Khal Drogo that multiple sexual positions are the spice of life…

Yeah, okay, maybe you guys can guess what my thoughts about the Danaerys plot are. But we’ll get to that.

Just like in the books, Tyrion continues to be awesome. Peter Dinklage is not ugly enough, compared to the books, but his characterization totally hits the mark. Every scene with him is like I imagined Tyrion. I am glad we’ll see more of him. I am not 100% sold on his dear sister Cersei though. I am still waiting for the venom. Even in the scene where she ordered Lady’s death she seemed pretty tame to me. I want the fangs to come out.

This episode finally had more Arya scenes, and I loved them all. I got a bit sniffly when Jon gave her Needle, I tell ya. Also incredibly adorable: Arya’s wolf Nymeria. I mean seriously, how adorable was it when Arya tried to make her fetch stuff and she just wouldn’t move? The relationship between Jon and Arya was so spot on for me.

Less spot on was the Catelyn-Jon scene where he goes to say farewell to Bran. I am not yet 100% sure what to think of Catelyn. Catelyn Stark in the books is an incredibly stern woman who is the epitome of dutiful wife. Her only weakness in the face of duty is the existence of Jon Snow that she meets with vindictiveness. It’s usually that chapter where people start disliking her as character, because she is cruel towards Jon. I mean, yeah, she kicked him out, but it lacked the cruel bite. Catelyn also brought me my queasy moment of the day. I can’t stand the sight of blood, and that Valyrian steel was really sharp, wasn’t it?

The later episodes showed us the trip along the Kingsroad, and the introduction of a few more characters that should play more of a role in King’s Landing. Ser Ilyn Payne I always imagined more henchman looking, tall and gaunt and evil. He just looked like a pissed-off dude so far. Speaking of pissed-off dudes, Joffrey’s casting is genius. How I loathe thee, Joffrey Baratheon. Slick and slimy when he wants to be, his cruelty and irrational behavior came out in the scene where they walk in on Arya and Micah. Arya holding him at sword’s point is definitely a favorite moment, for sure.

I felt bad when Ned had to go do his duty and kill Sansa’s direwolf.

So, that’s all good stuff! But it can’t all be good, right? Well, there’s the Danaerys part of the show. Now, Dany is one of my favorite characters from the book. Given away to a barbarian at age 13, she goes through hardship and loss to grow into a kick-ass woman. I am really not sure why they still make it seem like Danaerys did not enjoy being with Khal Drogo. From the wedding night on, Danaerys came to love her husband, and the show doesn’t follow that path. I want to see no more tears from her, she’s a strong girl. They were getting there at the end of it, but it was just one too many scenes of Dany mounted and near-crying, looking at the eggs. She’s a Targaryen, she’s stronger than that.

At least the Dothraki looked a bit more authentic this go around, the wedding for the first episode was probably the show’s low point so far.

Very emotionally touching episode, with lots of polish. How about your thoughts?

I think I’ll start doing really full recaps next week, I will have more time.

Bonus feature!

Yes, A Dance with Dragons is done, and it’s ginormous. Huzzah!

Book clubbing it

Last Updated on Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:14 Written by Kadomi Friday, 29 April 2011 10:23

re book clubs an American thing? They might be, I am not sure. It’s taken yours truly til 2011 to actually join one. I can’t recall anything of the kind in German. I like the idea however. Reading as such is a pleasure, but reading something new and discussing it afterwards, that’s something else entirely. My only issue is, how do I actually keep up with all the books? If I believe wikipedia, those clubs have been around forever and ever, so I am just very late to this, as a German.

I am currently aiming to participate in two book clubs.

Bookclub 1 is run by my two friends Lashe and Caiters. They are running their bookclub as LJ community. I don’t know if this is common in book clubs, but every month a vote is held for genre, and then a main title and a bonus book are picked. Last month’s main book was A Game of Thrones, e.g.

May will see us read mystery/thriller, starting with Rebecca as main title. As Hitchcock fan, I read Rebecca many many years ago, but I hardly remember anything. Which is just as well. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

The second bookclub I aim to participate in is more specific in nature. I like the idea of it very much:

All the books there sound very fresh to me, with the exception of Mercedes Lackey (who I really don’t have much love for at all), I haven’t read any of those books. I might have to skip Firebird, because I thought it was pretty awful.

I joined the Goodreads SFF bookclub, but I seriously couldn’t keep up with the discussion volume. A problem for me is simply to keep up, because I am also in the middle of re-reading all books of A Song of Ice and Fire.

So little time, so much reading to you. Now educate me about all the different book clubs you guys have been in since the dawn of time. Because I am -that- slow.

A Game of Puppies

Last Updated on Thursday, 21 April 2011 09:02 Written by Kadomi Thursday, 21 April 2011 12:00

inally got around to watching the first episode of ‘Game of Thrones’, the highly anticipated HBO show based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books. Even before the show was first aired, there was tons of controversy about it, based on the most ridiculous review I ever had the displeasure of reading. It’s particularly insulting to know that the author Ginia Bellafante completely discarded the huge segment of women who enjoy fantasy, because A Song of Ice and Fire is boy fiction. The worst part might probably be that despite the outcry of people insulted by her review that didn’t actually review the show, the author still doesn’t understand why people are upset.

I have read the books multiple times, and actually prepared for the show by re-reading just a couple weeks before the show started. I will try to loosely recap the show here in my blog. Not as a detailed by-play of every scene, like many recaps do, but things that I found notable.

Gorgeous theme. I am a huge sucker for maps. It’s one of my fantasy shticks. If I flick through a book in a store, the inclusion of beautiful maps will make it more likely that I purchase a book. I thought the theme was very interesting, with the maps, the sigils of the main families of the books, the gears. Nicely done. If you haven’t seen it, HBO has made it available on YouTube.

I went away from this episode with being happy of two things. The casting is very tight. I thought many characters seem exceptionally good fits. Amongst the best were Ned Stark, Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister, Theon Greyjoy and Bran Stark. Those characters immediately worked for me. Tyrion Lannister was good, but not a 100% fit for me, and I don’t know how I feel about Cersei yet. She doesn’t seem vindictive enough. Maybe that’ll come into play later, but she seemed too nice somehow. Still, overall the casting was very convincing to me. Immediate dislike of Theon Greyjoy and Joffrey Baratheon, heh.

The other thing I was happy about was that they really stick closer to the book than other book adaptations. There were certainly moments that didn’t match the book completely, but the general feeling of it was that they’re going to follow the book to a T. I don’t know why Tyrion got a gratuitous whorehouse scene, but then, they might touch on his personal history with whores in the near future.

I wonder why they made all the Stark kids older across the board. It looked like every single one of them is two years older than in the book. Speaking of Stark Kids, I thought Bran was so adorable. He won my heart over immediately. I liked the hints we got of Arya, but there was definitely not enough Arya in the show this week. I think everyone who’s read the books probably likes Arya and Tyrion best, they’re fan favorites, and deservedly so. She is the character I am most excited about. Also, need to see more pups. Weren’t they adorable?

For an HBO show, there was little sex. Anyone remember the first episode of S1 True Blood? That was pornolicious, and I was happy Game of Thrones wasn’t. I am however not sure why every single sex scene so far included doggy-style. It only makes sense for the Dothraki, because that is what they do. Didn’t make sense for…well, not spoiling it, but it didn’t make sense for me in the final scene. Unnecessary change from the book.

Now that I mentioned the Dothraki, that was probably the most disappointing stuff of the first episode. Viserys was lacking the crazy, Illythio didn’t look anything like I imagined him. Where was the yellow forked beard? He wasn’t even really fat. And the Dothraki didn’t look like specific people, they looked like random extras. I expected them to look more Mongolian, or at least more exotic than they did. I have high expectations of Danaerys. I like her storyline very much. I want her to grow into the powerful Targaryen lady she is. They depicted her weaker than she was in the book, in the wedding scene, and I hope that won’t be a continuing trend. I thought the Targaryens looked very good, but seriously, Viserys needs more crazy. My dear friend Ria told me that the thing that bothered her most was that they didn’t dye Emilia Clarke’s brows enough, that they were too dark. That’s first world girl problems for you in fantasy, I tell ya. Just for Ria I made a screencap of the brows too.

Overall, I am happy, and also glad to hear that they already got renewed for Clash of Kings. It’s so rare that you get to see fantasy that’s well done. How did you folks enjoy the show? Disappointed or pleased? Indifferent or confused?