Yeah, Sean Bean is definitely the biggest-name actor in the series, but Peter Dinklage (Tyrion) is up there as well. He's had quite a few recurring TV roles (Nip/Tuck comes to mind), and he was in Elf, Chronicles of Narnia, both versions of Death at a Funeral, etc.

The introduction of Sam was pretty much word-for-word taken from the books. The death threat included.

*Edit* Yeah, Arya remains impressive, though I was hoping to see a bit of cat-chasing. Those scenes were pretty funny in the books.

 

Fuuuuuuuuucccccccccckkkkk

This series is just getting better and now I just want the whole fucking series to be out already so I can watch them.

I felt like this episode was mostly filler, but important filler as it was building towards the next episode, which should be epic.

In my mind you can always tell how good a show is by how well they portray the back story and the important, yet not as exciting, information. Needless to say, I find this series to be one of the best TV shows I have watched in a long time.

I cannot even find an actress or actor I don't like (characters, yes, but not the actors themselves). Arya impressed me yet again. I wanted to murder Vyres (hate him enough to not want to check his spelling) and I found Daenerys new stronger personally to be captivating and cannot wait to see more of her.

Littlefinger is growing on me, as is Jamie. I love and hate the King...

I loved Sam, his actor is amazing and Jon... Well, Jon is just hot (though I like his acting as well).

It's times like these I wish HBO did more movies and would have done Harry Potter. It would have been epic.

 

Fixed that for you. Granted it's not their usual style but at least it wouldn't be what SyFy gave us.

That or they could have nutted up and just done Preacher...

 

So, new episode out and it's time to nitpick again:

Anyone remembers if the dialogue Arya overhears at the dungeons matches the one in the book(Don't have my copy with me in the university)? Also, was the identidy of those two ever mentioned? I feel like it wasn't, and seeing those two felt like a cheap way to cut some of the plot off.

 

I don't recall if it's exactly the same, but the jist of it is the same. I think they may have left out a few details, forget now.

And no, it was never specifically stated in the books who the two men were. However it is hinted at being those two, and they are commonly accepted as being the two by most fans. Dunno if Martin ever stated outside of the books that it was them or not.

 

The whole Renly and Ser Loras thing came out of the blue. It's not that it doesn't make sense--Ser Loras was hinted at being a little feminine and nowhere in the books we see any of them go whoring or wed--but I find it annoying anyway. It's as if they made them gay for the sake of having gay characters.

 

The big problem is, that they have to get the conflict going very fast, to hold the attention of the viewers. They don't have time for a few hundred pages of exposition.
So now nearly every scene is someone explaining a part of the background story and who is who and who does what and who wants what.
This in turn is hurting the characterization of all the main figures, which now has to be accomplished in a few scenes.

I'm actually surprised how well they managed to do both these things in a few episodes, and sometimes it's necessary to create a scene that didn't happen in the books, just to get as much information and character as possible to the viewer.

Scenes like the one between Robert and Cersei or Renly and Loras do that.

 

It's hinted at throughout the books that Renly and Loras were together, it's just not ever openly stated as such.

But hey, look on the bright side, we've had a Stannis namedrop!

 

The scene between Robert and Cersei was awesome. Loved every second of it.

 

I felt this episode was the weakest so far. It had the least cohesion. Also, I can't recall: was Ned injured that seriously in the books?

 

This is HBO, I'm pretty sure they have an executive mandate that pretty much says someone has to be gay. In fact before I read that far I was wondering who they were going to turn gay...

But in this case they don't need it, apparently GRRM himself said Renly and Loras were a couple, but that's according to TVtropes and I haven't verified yet.

 

Nah, he broke his foot when it got caught under his horse. I guess since they had Ned and Jaime fight (on foot) they needed something else.

 

If anyone has HBO GO for their mobile device Episode 7, which plays on HBO May 29, will be available on May 22 after episode 6 ends. For those who can't wait until the next week.

 

Caught up on the last two episodes. It's amazing how the casting preserves my dislike of people like

Spoiler

Ned, Lysa , Lil' Robert and Catelyn. Luckily I already know I'll have the last laugh

Spoiler

And Theon Greyjoy is definately the one dying in this season, he's getting far too much screentime

I hadn't really liked Cersei until I watched this, and alternatively Robert seemed to have nothing to do in this episode but shout so it was good to see him tone it down a notch.

I didn't mind the episode as much as some but I have to say that while I couldn't see the concerns with Littlefinger before I noticed them when he went head to head with Varys. There's something just... missing, a lack of inflection or the wit LF had idunno. And the funny thing is, Varys is OOC too (he has far bigger balls than in the book) but I don't mind at all.

 

I think my non-book-reader-self is showing when I say, "Christ, can't it be Sunday already? I wanna see what happens. " Just did a rewatch of episode five, again, and it was awesome, again.

Also, the creepiness that is Littlefinger, in five seconds.

 

For those of you who have HBO go, they will up the 7 episode there after the normal episode for this week, so you people can watch it a week earlier