Game of Thrones Season One Review

In gearing up for the second season of Game of Thrones, which airs its first episode this Sunday, I, like many a fan out there, rewatched the entirety of season 1.  So here’s my take of season 1, and what I’m looking forward to in season 2.  Make sure to stay tuned for weekly reviews of each episode as it airs.

When describing Game of Thrones the TV series, or A Song of Ice and Fire, the novel from which it is based, there’s no point in talking about the plot, or even the design, without having a full grasp of all the major players in our story.  And there are a ton.  There’s not much point to me listing off all of the main characters, their secondary, or all of their relationships, you can find that with a simple Wikipedia search.  Hell, even HBO has an interactive family tree online, which is pretty cool and you should check it out.  Anyways, what I’m going to do is take a look at the main characters and how their actors portray them, because, honestly, that and the production design is what makes the show worth watching on top of having already read the novels.

Also, spoiler warning!  If you haven’t seen the show or read the novels, stop reading this review and go do that!  They’re both friggin amazing and hook you right from the beginning.  Speaking of which, I’ll start with the Stark family.  The lead character of the show (I’m basing this on the main poster for season one by the way) is Ned Stark, played by Sean Bean.  He is the lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North of the island country of Westeros.  To put it in layman’s terms, think of Westeros as England and you’ll be dandy.  Ned Stark is a family man who is very loyal to his king, Robert Baratheon (played by Mark Addy).  He is married to Caitlyn (played by Michelle Fairley), and has five children with her, Rob, Sansa, Arya, Bran, and Rikkon (played by Richard Madden, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, and Art Parkinson respectively). His bastard John Snow (played by Kit Harington) also resides with them and is the same age as Rob.  Now, before you get on my case for basically listing them out, ALL of Ned Stark’s children are very important to the plot, and actually give us very different viewpoints on everything that’s going on because of their young ages.  Well Rikkon isn’t really all that integral until about the end of book 5, but you catch my drift.

It would be very difficult for me to try and talk too much about the plot with this show because it’s based on a 500 page book and basically is written well enough to hit all the high points of the book within its 10 episodes.  And the production value is so high it really does look and feel like a 10 hour long movie.  I really would love to watch Game of Thrones in theatres.  Lord knows its leaps and bounds better than most of the stuff released in theatres nowadays.

So, back to Ned Stark.  Long story short, Ned becomes the Hand of the King for Robert Baratheon, prompting him to move himself and his two daughters to the capitol of King’s Landing and ends up getting himself beheaded for treason.  Just prior to leaving, however, Bran, the second youngest, witnesses the queen, Cersei Lannister (played by Lena Headey) and her twin brother Jaime (played by Nikolai Coster-Waldau) in a, well, incestuous moment.   This comes as the end to the first episode, which I was enjoying immensely, up until the incest, then I was just like, ew.  Seeing Bran, Jaime pushes him out the window, effectively paralyzing him below the waist for the rest of his life.  From this point you can see how all of our characters lives begin to unravel.

I personally enjoyed Bean’s performance as Ned.  He was both the rugged, combat veteran who could still hold his own, but also a middle aged family man who genuinely enjoyed spending time with his children.  I also love Fairley’s portrayal as Caitlyn.  She makes the character both a relatable mother who wants the best for her children, but she’s also a believable strong noblewoman because of the grace and dignity she shows on screen.  Caitlyn really does have an inner fire to her and an ability to navigate politics without pissing off those that she expects to follow her, unlike Cersei.  She does cause that whole scandal with capturing Tyrion, which prompted Jaime to kill all of Ned’s men and then spear him through the leg, but she considered them her enemies anyways.  In the first season we see how all of Ned’s children are strong, but young, and all their actors do well working in the role of growing up in the middle of severe political strife.  My favorite is Arya because she rails against the social norms and wants to learn how to fight, which, in my opinion, is what saved her from the torture that Sansa had to endure after the death of their father.  But I’ll stop there because I don’t want to spoil stuff that happens in book 2 if you haven’t read it. 

This is where I have to introduce you to the Lannisters.  Man they are a fucking piece of work.  You’ve got Cersei and Jaime Lannister, the incestuous twins, Cersei’s children Joffrey (played by Jack Gleeson) and Marcella and Tomin, who aren’t of much note in the TV series yet.  Yes these are Jaime’s offspring, not Roberts.  Cersei is a total bitch too; everything she does just makes me want to punch her.  She is easily one of the most villainous characters of the series and Lena Headey does a great job of making her sinister, but also subtle, so you don’t really notice it at first.  Then she’ll do something, like randomly ask Sansa if she’s gotten her period, and you’ll be like, what? 

Then there’s Jaime.  He’s a really tough character because even though you want to hate him, you end up liking him because his actor is so damnably charismatic.  As is his character in the book but Coster-Waldau makes him so much more than I expected, with his swagger and confidence.  I was so glad to see him captured and treated roughly after all of the evil things he did.  But damn him, I still liked him.  Well, the incest still grosses me out, but I blame that on Cersei.  Cersei is calling the shots, and always has been, even though at the beginning it seems like Jaime is the dominant one.  She even says at one point that the Targaryens married brother to sister over the 300 years since their conquest to keep the bloodline pure (super gross), but the Targaryens are shown to have magical properties about them.  Like when Daenerys withstand high levels of heat, like being able to stand right in the fire.  I just want to slap her and be like you’re not magic!   You’re lucky those children don’t have some serious defect!  Jaime is actually a good example of an anti-hero, where he was villainous, but events turn him into a hero.  I won’t say what those events are, because a good bulk of them happens in book 3, but you can see it even from this early stage. 

I guess you want to know what I think about Tyrion Lannister, aka the Imp, played by Peter Dinklage, after I talked about his older brother and sister.  There’s not much to say that hasn’t been said really.  The man won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for the role, and even though I don’t care too much about awards shows, I do respect the fact that he won.  What I like about him is, being a dwarf, he’s had to rely on his wits his whole life, and because of that, he seems like he’ll be the one to win the 'game of thrones', as it were.  My other two candidates who most likely to “win” are Peter Baelish (played by Aidan Gillen) and Daenerys Targaryen (played by newcomer Emelia Clark,).

Peter Baelish has got to be one of if not my most favorite character.  For me there’s a three-way tie between him, Tyrion Lannister, and Jora Mormont, although I do genuinely like every character in this series.  Baelish, aka Littlefinger, is the Minister of Finance.  He was a lower noble that worked his way up to the king’s council.  He is in love with Caitlyn Stark and when he was a young teen fought Ned’s older brother for the right to wed her, but lost and was given a massive scar from his navel to his collar bone.  I love how the costume designer took that knowledge and gave him costumes with high necklines that also made him look so uptight, and then we find out he owns several brothels.  The reason I like this guy is not only because Gillen is so good at being a somewhat friendly councilman, to almost flipping a switch to become a backstabber, but because everything Baelish says or does says doesn’t seem important, until it is.  If you’ve read the books, you know what I mean, and if not, go read the books. 

This is where I get to those in the Dothraki side of the story and the audience is introduced to the other major player in the game of thrones, Daenerys Targaryen.  Notable characters who are part of her storyline are her husband Kahl Drogo (played by Jason Momoa), her brother Viserys Targaryen (played by Harry Lloyd) and Jora Mormont (played by Ian Glen).  Yes, Jora is the Knight Commander of the Night’s Watch’s son, and yes both Glen and Lloyd were both in some of the better Doctor Who episodes.  Though, not the same ones unfortunately.  That would have been awesome though.  I’ll be honest, Jason Momoa impressed me so much in his role as Khal Drogo that I went and saw Conan in theatres.  That movie did not do him credit, man was it awful. 

What I like about Daenerys’ storyline is that not only does it give us the most magic and character drama, it is centred around Daenerys (of course), who is a strong, albeit young, determined female ruler.  Honestly speaking I think that the Song of Ice and Fire series portrays women very well and I’m surprised to hear that a lot of critics say it’s just for men and centered around male characters.  Yes there are a lot of nude scenes with women, but there are a lot of nude scenes with men too.  And not all of them sexual, on both sides of the gender coin.  I think it comes from the whores, but honestly, if you want a semi-accurate portrayal of medieval life, or, hell, any time before the Victorian period, there’s going to be brothels.  Then there are the strong and intelligent female leads, who don’t have to compromise their femininity.  (With the exception of Arya, who has actively said she doesn’t want to be a court lady, but I think that’s more her railing against what society expects her to be, being a noble’s daughter.)  Daenerys being the conqueror, Sansa dealing with torture, Caitlyn being a noblewoman that generals listen to,  hell, even Cersei is a strong female character, even if she is power-hungry and despicable.  In later books we are introduced to even more strong female characters.  If the sex and nudity is what bothers someone watching this show they should a) not watch it cuz they’re too squeamish and b) stop being so shallow and look under the surface a little bit.

Now, I’m sure you’re probably wondering why Jora Mormont is one of my favorite characters.  Other than the fact I like his actor, who was an excellent choice to cast in the roll of the middle aged exiled knight, his character is appreciably multilayered.  He has a colorful past that’s always present, but you can also see him change as his love for Daenerys grows, even with his advanced age compared to other characters.  I’m also a bit of hopeless romantic, because (spoiler) his love is sadly one-sided for most of the book series.

I loved the costume and set design, especially the knight’s armor and the iron throne made of swords.  The music is beautiful and I can see it becoming iconic.  This is actually one of the few shows where I genuinely enjoy the opening sequence, which, unlike True Blood or Dexter, continues to be interesting because it, being a map, changes depending on where the characters are situated in the episode.  It also has really cool animations.  So, that’s my thoughts on Season one.  Even though I’ve read all of the books to date I’m still super exited for what Season 2 will bring, with its promise of more battles, more drama, and dragons!  Half the fun of watching a series or movie based on a novel series you like is seeing what they’ve changed.  See you next week with the review of the season premiere!

Game of Thrones is owned and produced by HBO, and A Song of Ice and Fire is owned and written by George R. R. Martin.

Weekly Recap

This week's review/ vlog is late because I am sick.  So much so that I have lost my voice and I've pretty much slept straight through since Saturday.  But I did watch the finale of Walking Dead, as well as the new episodes of Once Upon a Time and Breakout Kings.  I've also watched all of the episodes of Spartacus: Blood and Sands, which include Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, and Spartacus: Vengeance.  Like I said, I'm really very sick, so this is going to be very brief.  And point form-ish.

The Walking Dead:  I have one thing to say.  And if you have read the comics there is one thing in the season finale that made you jump out of your seat and scream 'yes'!  Or clap a lot in my case because I'm sick.  And that one thing is the introduction of Michonne!  The awesome chick with a katana and two zombies (minus their arms and lower jaws) on leashes!  Everything else in this episode pales in comparison.  

Once Upon a Time: I'm honestly losing interest in this show, but it comes on after Walking Dead, and before the auto-rerun of Breakout Kings, so it's no skin off my back to watch it.  I still like Rumpelstiltskin, but the rest of the town is just boring.  A mystery show only really works if they know exactly where they're going with the plot, but you can see this show is both syndicated and episodic, so the writing is waiting for the big company to tell them where they can go and when they can go there.  Which leads to a lot of filler.

Breakout Kings: Although this show is also episodic, it makes sense that it is because of the show's set up.  Also, each episode brings more to the forefront, and the stakes to the characters are always important and very present.  The main plot is also not predicated on a mystery, which works well in its favor.  Everything seems up to the minute, and the characters have a chance to be both reactionary and productive, though mostly reactionary because of the show's base plot, where they go and catch criminals when they break out of jail, which isn't a bad thing.  This episode gave insight to Julia's past and skills, but also her deep psychological problems, and how she finally asked Lloyd for help.  Of course, the commercials have to ruin it for us by showing her kiss Lloyd in a future episode, but when Doctor Who did that when they showed River Song in that eye patch thing, the reason for it turned out to be way different than we expected, so it could still be a little bit of a surprise.

Spartacus: If you haven't watched this show, go and watch it, I dare you.  I love how this show is like a more elegant version of 300.  Yes, you read that right, I said Spartacus was elegant.  And I mean it.  Yeah, there's a ton of sex and gore, like Caligula level of sex and gore, just short of being a hardcore porn.  I'll be honest, I was expecting to see full frontal nudity on women, but I was pleasantly surprised to see there was more on men, and in not specifically sexual moments.  There's even one scene where two guys fight each other nude.  It's great to see something that's a (somewhat) historical portrayal of ancient Roman society.  As for it being like 300, it's either a complete rip-off or a soul sequel.  Every episode has slow-mo action, cartoonish blood, cgi gore, slow-mo sex, etc.  It even has a couple of the same actors.  This show works a lot better here because there is a lot less cgi and a lot more color, and the acting and plot is quite a bit better.  Also, Lucy Lawless!  In nude scenes!  Did that get your attention?

Now I'm going to sleep, because despite I haven't talked yet today, my throat is killing me.  See you next week!

Kaylee (Firefly) Cosplay - Part 1

I've been bouncing a couple ideas back and forth for what costume I'm going to make for Emerald City Comicon, and my friend and I have finally come up with doing Firefly characters.  She will be doing Inara and I will be doing Kaylee, for which my production sketch is shown below:

In my opinion no cosplay should be exact for several reasons: its not personal or creative enough, the original was either cobbled together from what the designer found or had on hand, or it was a drawing that either was inconceivable in the real world or not detailed enough to be interesting.  Don't get me wrong, I understand that if you change the costume too much it's not the character anymore, but to me it's the essence of the character that counts.  So that's what I've done here with my Trikucian as Kaylee.  

On Kaylee's coveralls she has several appliques.  I've found different ones that would work, as well as some old pillow covers I'll cannibalize for their embroidery.  It's the sort of thing that would have worked for her thrifty character anyways.  I will have videos up relatively soon of my process of constructing the costume, as well as of me wearing it at the convention.  I'll also wear one of my tie-dyes under the coveralls both to save money and give it a personal flair.

As for the drawing, I personally like drawing it out and then coloring it in by hand, rather than on the PC like my other art pieces, so I can have a feeling for the costume.  It helps me work out how I'm going to pattern it out and put it all together.  I commonly make the patterns for my costumes, but in this case it will be easy because I'll be making it nice and baggy, with a little bit of elastic in the back.  Again, I know that's not exactly how it was in the show, but I have a curvier figure than Jewel Staite.  

That's another thing I noticed, is that when someone is cosplaying a western character people are less rigid about exactitude.  I think they really should be about Japanese characters as well, but that's how cosplay has evolved today, and that's something I really do think makes it less creative and more a hobby of perfectionism.  I look at creativity as bringing something new to the table, and a lot of cosplays I see are either just copies of artwork or of how other people did it.  I appreciate the work that went into those pieces, don't get me wrong, and they can be very beautiful, but I want to see people put their own flair into the project.  Those are the best costumes in my opinion.

Weekly Recap V-Log 03/12/12

In this v-log I talk about Mass Effect 3 (without spoilers) and how I don't mind admitting my newbage at certain videogames, The Lorax, Breakout Kings, and The Walking Dead.  I also show off my new knitting projects, cuz I'm a dork.

Knitting Mania!

Somehow, in the space of one day, I finished two more toques!  

This toque was more of an experiment in stocking stitch but it's still wearable.  Stocking stitch really should be only two or three wide.

This is the same pattern as the Jayne toque.  This one turned out a lot better because the yarn was thicker and I followed the pattern where I put the stocking stitch for the headband section.  All of the yarn in this was also at least 30 years old.

Jayne (Firefly) Toque

In getting geared up for Emerald City Comicon I've knitted myself a Jayne toque (beanie for those not from Canada) from Firefly.

I do realize that mine is better made than the show, but I'm happy I got the colors right.  This is also the first time I've knitted anything in years, and my first hat.  I'm quite proud of myself, even if it is simplistic.  Even thought the pattern called for a stocking stitch I got lazy and just did the standard knit/ purl stitch, the one that you see on everything from t-shirts to sweaters.  The edging is done by crocheting.

You can see the different layers and pom-pom in this view.  This is also the first time I've made a pom-pom. The three colors of yarn are different widths, but I think it looks alright, especially considering the toque is intended to be Jayne's from Firefly.

So, yet again, my plans have changed for as to what costume I am going to make.  Because Mass Effect 3 hit me really hard, being one of the best written pieces of literature in any form I have experienced, I want to do my best making one of the main characters, probably Liara or a female Shepard.  Anyways, I'm definitely going to make a Kaylee from Firefly, and my friend is going to be an Inara.  I will also have this toque at the ready.  I'm still astounded I made it in one day.

Breakout Kings Season Premiere, and Other Stuff

I'm saving my next vlog outing for the Mass Effect 3 launch tomorrow night.  But this night I watched the newest episodes of The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, and the season 2 premiere of Breakout Kings.  As per usual, spoiler alert, but, then again, with most big shows nowadays, you just turn the channel on an hour late and the commercials for the next episode will be a spoiler.  Also, I didn't want to film because I moved my room all around, put up posters, threw out like 3 garbage bags worth of stuff, the whole nine yards, and only now just sat down to chill out and enjoy me some Firefly.  Did I mention I'm going to be Kaylee for the next two comicons coming up soon?

Anyways, tonight I'm going to shake things up and start with Breakout Kings.  I only just started watching this show little over a week ago, but I'm in love with it.  Granted, some of these feelings are coming from my love of Prison Break, for which Breakout Kings is sort of a sequel.  What makes Breakout Kings so much better than the run of the mill detective or cop shows is its cast of characters.  Each and every person brings something important to the team, and the show wouldn't be the same without them. Shea with his street smarts, Charlie being a hardass, Erica being so kickass, Ray being the big strong brooklyn guy, and Lloyd being, well, Lloyd (if you've seen the show you know what I'm talking about, and if not, WATCH IT!).  And that's why the loss of Charlie at the end of the episode was so shocking and heart breaking.  Because he, like everyone else in the show, was compelling and empathetic, his loss really hits us, and all of the other characters, hard.  I'm very interested in seeing how this is going to affect the rest of the season, and all of the characters.  This show is very emotive, compounded by the fact that Lloyd is a behavioral psychologist and his main character focus is looking at such parts of the human psyche.  This season also introduces a main antagonist, Damien, who is a recently escaped serial killer.  Lloyd gave council at his trial so his main focus is revenge against our cute, goofy doctor.  He killed Charlie, stole his badge, and was the first con to evade arrest after they found him.  All I can say is I will be watching this season with apt interest.

Once Upon a Time wasn't on last week due to the Oscars.  Thing is with this show the most interesting parts of it are those that either involve Rumplestiltskin or Emma directly.  When they don't, it's very boring, and that's what this week's episode was like.  Regarding those characters, all we learned was that Mr. Gold (aka Rumplestiltskin) doesn't like the nuns (aka the faeries).  I'm sure that will be important in the future.  And that's all I have to say about this episode.

The Walking Dead is just getting better and better.  A lot of people were saying how it was too slow and boring, but finally we're getting the pay off.  Let me just say, even though I was not expecting Dale to die (which was half the reason it was so shocking, the other half him being such an integral character) I was glad to see him go.  If we're going by survival logic, he was the best one to go.  He was old, a shit-stirrer, and he just didn't live within reality.  I do agree that they shouldn't become savages, but the way I look at it that means they don't rape or kill for pleasure, like the other men that are encountered within the series do.  I'm basing this mostly on the comic, but it looks like that's the way the show is heading too.  Killing a guy who shot at them because he was a liability seems logical to me.  He hasn't shown any signs of capitulating to their domination and following their lead, actually he seems like a strong flight risk.  Rick should have shot him in the head when he fell on that spike, but this show just loves to play with the characters' hindsight.  What I really liked about this episode was people were FINALLY talking in a group.  I wish they had done that a lot earlier, it would have made a lot more sense.  But, now that Dale's gone, and Rick and Shane are agreeing on something (at least for the most part) the group should be gathering some more cohesion.  Daryl also had some cool scenes this episode.  In the preview for the next episode it looks like Laurie tries to reconcile with Shane, which i'm looking forward to.  Only two more episodes left!  Then we'll have to wait until Halloween for season 3.  At least we'll have the comics to tide us over.

And Game of Thrones too!  The new season looks wicked!  I'm going to do an in depth review of each episode.  Speaking of reviews, I do have the scripts written for a few, but I just have to play Mass Effect 3, so until my first play-through is done, I won't be doing much else.  At least my room is clean!