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.
No comments:
Post a Comment