Yeah I feel like they nailed it with some of the casting choices like Joffrey, Sansa, Ned, Cersei, Jaime, Tywin, Varys, Littlefinger. Some are way off. I know King Robert is older and fat when we see him but I was expecting a much bigger mofo not some Santa looking guy who's the same size as Ned. Tyrion wasn't nearly ugly enough IMO but the guy they got to play him has been fantastic. Hodor isn't what I expected and his character in the show isn't a fraction as funny as he is in the book. Catelyn in the show is also much different from what I think she should look like.
I agree on all counts. As much as I love the guy who played Robert (he's a good actor), I didn't like the casting. I pictured Tyrion as a shorter version if Varys for some reason... kind of balding and extremely ugly. The guy they got to play him is much to good looking, but he plays the part so well that I can forgive it. I also agree about Hodor. I pictured him as Tom from The Stand. [video=youtube;7hVMrX9L90A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hVMrX9L90A[/video] Catelyn was a lot more attractive in my mind. She's old and haggard in the show.
We're in total agreement. I expected Tyrion to look like Mini Me but more deformed, though after I finished the 2nd book I suspect they decided to just let his scarring from the battle against Stannis manifest his deformity. This is exactly what I meant lol. She's the queen of Winterfell and I feel like they set her up as pretty damn good looking (not as much as Cersei but pretty good looking).
This season started slowly, but it was really cool to see the wildfire on Blackwater Bay. Stannis should have retreated for a month or so and just pecked at King's Landing after that, but I guess that's not his style, and he wants to prove himself without the Red Woman at his side.
LOL @ PapaG giving tactical advise to Stannis The whole season has been great. The slow build to the last episode has been worth the trip. I think it was the best battle sequence in television history. And yet, somehow, not overwrought. Still, have to wonder WTF they are doing with Dany. I suppose they'll give her more time in the last one. Her journey has really stalled out this season. I guess that's the problem when you have ten hours and about eleventy billion storylines to get through.
Dany's story has stalled out because it stalls in the books at this point. I'm offering Stannis advice because I know what's coming for him. You know what's coming, too, in Book 5. Did you miss the 'SPOILER' part of this thread title?
The TV showrunners have to draw their line in the sand now and take over the pacing from the books. From this point on, the books become softer and softer in the plot department until they ooze like mush. I trust HBO to firm that shit up and get it fit and fighting. If that means they accelerate Dany's "plotline" (lol), and Bran's too, I'm all for it. There's so much bloat by this point in the story that entire swaths of story could be excised without missing it. Hell, combine books 3, 4, and 5 into two seasons, then beat GRRM to the sixth book!
No I just think it's funny to offer earnest advise to a fictional character, especially when you already know the story. Don't do it, Romeo, she isn't dead!
You guys are weird. You can wonder about alternative courses of action a character might've chosen but I think the point is to understand the reasons for their actions and find truth in them. Stannis' hubris is the point. His righteousness. Saying what he ought to have done goes against who he is and what he stands for, and you said as much. You can try and learn from his mistakes, as with Oedipus or Narcissus or whoever. I think the point of non-fiction is to build on the platform of knowledge of the human existence. The purpose of fiction is to understand that process and the reasons for it and how it affects us. Like saying Icarus shouldn't have flown so close to the sun, or Daedalus should've made the wings out of something that wouldn't melt. I think the point has been missed.
Seems like they're abandoning the whole Tyrion-being-hideous angle all together. I figured they just decided to delay it until he gets blasted in the Battle of Blackwater Bay, but it looks like he'll only have a (big) scar on his cheek as opposed to mangling his nose.
Removing a nose is actually a difficult (read: expensive) special effect to pull off because it's persistent, always in closeups, and not really doable with makeup alone. I always figured a scar was the worst we'd get.
Yeah I figured expense/convenience was the reason to delay making him hideous, but to abandon it completely? Didn't they just set the record for most expensive season of a TV show ever in season 1? Good call on all the close ups though I hadn't even thought of that.
His nose did get mangled a little. They can work with the upper part if they want to make it really unsightly.
