Archive for A Song of Ice and Fire – Page 2

Game of Thrones – Episode 27

May12

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 27 – May 12, 2013

Title: The Bear and the Maiden Fair

Summary: Not 1, not 2, but 3 dragons, a bear, and lots of queenly tush!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

This week we have the annual George R. Martin episode, written by Georgi son of Gimli himself.

Jon – Evidently getting down the wall is a lot easier than getting up, because Jon, Ygritte and crew start off this episode on the green side. Also, one has to wonder, where did all the extra wildlings come from? Seemed last week like just four got to the top, and the rest of the red shirts tumbled to their doom, but now we have a whole party. Anyway, as they march along toward Castle Black, Jon and Ygritte get some welcome time together. Their chemistry is great — or more properly Ygritte is great as Jon acts a tad lumpish while she steals the show. We get to see her even more of her character: fierce and worldly in her own sphere, and a bit clueless about anything else.

Stollen moments

Tormund is good fun too. Orel makes my skin crawl, but he’s supposed to.

Bran – Bran’s scenes here, like their literary counterparts, aren’t the most exciting. Osha continues to be anxious and take the anti-magic stance, but her rational for not wanting to go back north of the wall is touching enough. The scenery (Northern Ireland) is similar enough to Jon’s, so we assume they must be near.

Oh and Osha does a nice refrain on the wildling sentiment “he was mine and I was his” that Ygritte expresses in the previous scene.

Robb – and his court stall before heading out to Edmure’s wedding. Not much here but Cat’s wary stance. However, In the next scene we’re treated to some good King and Queen of the North action. His bride isn’t shy, and it’s relatively rare in this show, and even rarer in the books, to see genuine affection. She admits to being pregnant, which as always in royal matters, is of great dynastic significance.

On a technical note, I like the little writing tray she uses in bed. This was actually a typical thing even in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Melisandre and Gendry – sail past King’s Landing and the wreckage of Blackwater Bay. They might not be my favorite characters but this is a gorgeous overhead shot like a medieval Life of Pi. Meanwhile she reveals to him that he’s King Robert’s bastard.

Arya – We don’t get much Arya this week, but she’s still hanging out in that cave — for now. They show it in the above video clip, but I have to admit to getting goosebumps when she admits her god is “death.” For me (and Martin) this isn’t just a cynical and bleak admission, but the beginnings of a liberalized relationship with Jaqen H’ghar’s faceless god of death. When the men even fail in their mission to take her rapidly to Riverrun she takes off, only to meet someone in the woods she thought long gone.

Theon – We might almost feel sorry for Theon, as it just keeps getting worse for everyone’s favorite Greyjoy. A couple of hottie girls pull him off his cross and start to show him a good time, but before we can wonder why they don’t mind the stink, the crazy bastard (hehe) holding him busts right in and spoils the fun. Although the nasty action is off screen, we’ll have to assume Theon ends up losing his two closest friends. Poor guy — even if he did murder Rodrick.

Dany – Pulls up to Junkai (the slaver city next to Astapor). We are treated to a great CGI shot of it in the distance, but her meeting with its emissaries takes place in the barrens outside. Notice how much they resemble A New Hope’s Tatooine! Anyway, the show has a consistent difficulty making these big army shots feel properly grand and gritty. The try, they really do, but it’s just hard to simulate tens of thousands of men on any reasonable budget. We do however, get some really good dragon action shots in the tent, particularly involving feisty Drogon. Dany is growing further and further into her own, taking on not just the cause of reclaiming Westeros but her almost religious mission to free any slave she encounters.

The real thing looked basically like this production mockup, but somehow “smaller”

Sansa and Marg – Unlike last week, this isn’t a Kings Landing heavy episode, but we do revisit those lovely Gardens below. The dueling attitudes of both girls are a study in opposites. Sansa bemoans her situation and Marg sure knows how to look on the bright side. Despite all the plot’s the lovely Highgarden girl is involved in, you can’t help but like her. Her flexibility seems genuine. And she doesn’t seem bothered by the idea of dwarf love!

Look familiar? They jazzed it up with some more plantings, and probably CGed out the cross, but these are the Gardens of Trestino.

Tyrion – chats with Bronn about his situation: i.e. what to do about Sansa and Shae. Too bad Bronn’s simple view on such matters isn’t helpful when he really gets down to talking with his working girl love. Show-Shae is far more complex and interesting than book-Shae. She has genuine feelings and motives here — and I can see where they are going. What happens with her at the end of A Storm of Swords always bothered me, but they seem to be laying better groundwork here.

Tywin and Joff – chat in the throne room. I’m not sure how I feel about this scene even though it feels true to both characters. They don’t exactly clash, but their perspectives are so far apart that there is almost no communication. I’m interested to see where this goes, because like Shae, Joff, and Tywin are both far more developed in the show than in the novels (not being POV characters).

Jaime and Brienne – Jaime comes to see Brienne off before heading out from Harrenhall. He’s feeling the shit, but she lets him off easy in her own way. She makes him swear again to uphold his part of her oath in rescuing Sansa and Arya (moot as it might be). This is a touching moment because being the Kingslayer, the oathbreaker, her very willingness to trust in his owner is complement enough, and Nikolaj Coster Waldau is deft in making you believe he means it.

Outside, Bolton bids him off, as does Locke, who’s clearly taken the consolidated place of the nasty Brave Companions and their creepy leader. Qyburn accompanies Jaime and works on his ugly-ass stump. Time is taken to build this sordid character, as he’s got his role to play, but it’s Jaime who does the serious soul searching here, deciding to force the group back to Harrenhall after Brienne.

The anticipated live action Bear and the Maiden Fair looked good, and sounded good (the refrain of the song is great), but felt somehow unrealistic. This was a phenomenal moment in the books and it just didn’t sit exactly right with me tonight. Maybe it wast he relative ease with which Locke gives up. This is a man that chopped off Jaime’s freaking hand to make a point! True, the other guys that have sworn to take Jaime to Kings Landing aren’t going to have any of it, but you don’t exactly feel the lines of power pulling taught.

Bart the Bear!

I’ll have to see how I feel on my second watch, particularly since my note taking on the first viewing always reduces the immediacy.

In any case, despite this, still a great episode. In casting forward the arc for the season this isn’t exactly half of A Storm of Swords, but more like 80%. I’ll register my opinion that the season is likely to end with the two weddings — and unlikely to include the parts that follow until next season. George is a fine scriptwriter, but he needs to get back to his books or HBO will catch up to him!

Absent this week were Stannis, Davos, Cersei, and Olena.

Another good analysis of this episode.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Drogon kicks ass!

By: agavin
Comments (9)

Posted in: Television

Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 27, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon, Season 3, Season 3 Episode 27, World of A Song of Ice and Fire, Ygritte

Game of Thrones – Episode 26

May05

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 26 – May 5, 2013

Title: The Climb

Summary: More transitional, but tense

ANY CHARACTER HERE

There is perhaps less action this week, but plenty of thumb screws being turned (haha). The show writers take the opportunity to mine the novel for thematic refrains within an episode in a way that probably isn’t deliberately reflected in the source text. This week we have several, notably: couples, marriage, and duality.

Sam – We open with Sam sharing a fire with Gilly. He pulls out his obsidian dagger, which even if I didn’t know, is TV code for “this will be relevant soon”. This first couple enjoys a pleasant and hesitant chemistry. Awkward, but in a warm way.

Bran – Bran’s two female protectors, Meera and Osha, squabble and fight. And I must say, the rabbit bit reminded me of that scene from Roger and Me. This is mostly a throwaway scene, designed to remind us that Bran’s still on his way. But it fits into the whole couples/duality thing in that Meera and Osha are birds of a feather. Anyway, Jojen dreams of…

Jon – Since this episode is titled The Climb, a rather big slice (in several parts). At the base of the wall, continuing the couple theme, he and Ygritte have a moment. The way she sees right through him is telling and I love the “the two of them against the world” angle that she works. It’s quite touching actually, even if it doesn’t get as much screen time as it should — they having had only their token night together. Still I liked it, even if Kitt isn’t as sensitive an actor as the part requires. Tormund is funny too with his “if you fall, don’t scream. You wouldn’t want that to be the last thing she remembers.”

The climb looks tough. I certainly couldn’t do it. Hell, I can hardly climb the rubber rock wall. Jon’s at the butt end of things and collects some spare snowballs. Ygritte watches closely. And so do we because it looks GOOD (even if a bit CGI). Then in the next segment, things go bad on the wall and everyone but Tormund, Orel, Jon and Ygritte, with the latter too dangling from their ropes. The cracks and avalanche looks great. The layout of loyalties that was (fairly obviously) in previous episodes is made crystal clear. Tormund does his best for all, and Orel cuts Jon and Ygritte loose. Fortunately Jon’s a stud, even if he doesn’t act it.

The episode ends with this thread and the four of them atop the wall. And with some more seriously nice CGI views of both sides of the massive and chilly structure.

Tormund Icecubebane

Arya – Things begin light enough with the spunkiest Stark. Echoing the first episode, she’s practicing her archery. In the background Thryos is drinking. She notices riders approaching and it’s Melisandre the red lady. This is a total deviation rom the books and a move to keep Mel in play, but it works. She recognizes the Lord of Light’s handiwork in Dondarian and this draws out a rather interesting exchange with Thryos which I totally enjoyed, faith and it’s relationship to magic being close to my heart (see my novel The Darkening Dream). I love how Thyros is the skeptic priest late come to his faith. This two breeds of priest, Mel and Thyros, clearly fit in the duality theme this week.

Scene two is a study in reversals. Gendry is helping the archer guy, but then at Mel’s orders he’s bundled off into her care for (presumably) nefarious purposes. Us readers have a clue as to what these might be even if this is a departure — given that he stays with the brotherhood and later runs into Brienne in the books. But the notable part is the continued stripping of Arya’s connections to other other people. Gendry and what roots she’s putting down with the brotherhood are both torn up. Mel, fey as ever, senses this “darkness” and makes some cryptic comments about pairs of eyes. Does she mean the direwolves? Or the faces of the faceless god?

Summer camp without borders!

Theon – And speaking of departures from the book, Theon is still suffering from his mysterious assailant (probably the Bastard of Bolton) in his mysterious location (probably the Dreadfort). This continuing new material is, I have to assume, stretching out his transformation into Reek. And it looks pretty painful, for both us and him. The bastard, though, does a pretty damn good job of playing a dude with his screws loose. He keeps us guessing for a while, but I suspect his final statements echo of truth. Also, flaying, ick! Maybe they threw the rabbits in earlier so we’d know what was going on!

Robb – has one scene this week, but it’s a good one. The row of Tully’s (plus Robb, who is of Tully blood) face off across the table from a Frey embassy. The truth is that the terms of this new alliance are pretty easy (too easy?): an apology, Harenhall (which is the Spinal Tap drummer of Westeros castles) and Edmure marrying a Frey. The custom/law that marriage may not be coerced enters the picture. How this exactly jives with Tywin and last week is left to the audience to consider. The way in which Edmund resists, and is then brought around by Robb is very well handled. I particularly liked Robb’s open acknowledgment of the debt this puts him in.

Pass the beef, dear

Jaime – As funny as the Kingslayer continues to be, Brienne in a dress is even funnier. Another couple of sorts, it’s kind of touching (and certainly amusing) how she helps him with his meat. Bolton is a cold one and boy is he leaving Jaime with a moral quandary. Will we finally see what kind of man he is? Or has become? The fact that Jaime offers to seal Bolton’s offer with a drink and the Flayed Lord refuses should be noted, if for symmetry with the next scene alone.

The pen IS mightier than the sword

Tywin and Oleana – lay into each other back in Kings Landing. Now this is a couple we’d pay money to see, and they’re discussing marriage, just not theirs. This harken’s back to the theme of marriage and its supposed lack of coercion. Olena’s a piece of work and hilarious to boot, with several great comments, including my personal favorite: “sword swallower.” It should also be noted that he’s pounding back the wine (wonder where Tyrion gets it?) and she refuses, which certain echoes the Bolton bit. It’s quite a fun duel of words.

Sansa and Tyrion – chats with Loras in the garden and it’s certainly clear this is the most unnatural of all the couples. Can you say awkward? Loras’ attempts to act interested are hilarious too. Poor Sansa and…

Tyrion, who isn’t happy about the state of things. He and Cersei come here to share a sort of shared misery as only a couple of Tywin’s children could. This is more personal and clear than in the books. Ty confronts his evil sister once and for all as to her possible plot to kill him and the blame falls to Joff. This also is a clarity not present in the source material and sets us up for later this episode. I also love Ty’s “Loras might come down with a sudden case of sword through bowels” which I think was in the book too.

Next scene, as Shae and Sansa talk about her supposed wedding to the “sword swallower”, is both funny and touching. Tyrion enters and tries to get Shae to leave, but realizes he’s going to have to tell both his reluctant bride to be and his lover about the situation at the same time. Interestingly, and perhaps effectively, it’s left off screen.

Poor girls

The pair of women retire to the balcony to deal with it in their own ways: Sansa crying and Shae stonefaced. I’d have perhaps set the thing up to surprise Sansa with the event itself (which I think happened in the book). It probably would have been more of a metaphorical rape. Although I do think this action, given what is to come for Shae, continues the work of further thickening her character versus the book and setting up her arc.

Grudge match!

Varys and Littlefinger – Just as we saw both kinds of priests in Mel and Thyros, the two plotters in Kings Landing have come to represent two sides of the same coin. The show is arguably less effective than the books with the POV characters, notably Jon and Cat, and strips some of the minor characters to the bone (like the Mountain). However, it consistently elevates the middling and borderline POV characters like Cersei, Varys, Littlefinger, Shae, Theon, Marg, and Renly, who are given considerable more depth.

Set as usual in the throne room, this scene is classic Varys vs. Littlefinger, but never before have their motives and methods been so exposed. Just as Ygritte argues to Jon that they should put couple before country, Varys speaks for realm first. And, well, everyone knows that Littlefinger is his own greatest love. They’ve really emphasized his villainy in the second and third seasons. He never seemed this clearly evil in the books.

Joff – Finally, as further proof that the secondary characters are better in the show, Joff is just far, far more repulsive. Here he reaches a level I never thought his cowardly nature would allow. Poor Ros. She wasn’t my favorite character, but she deserved better than this.

All in all a tremendous episode. There is less action than in either of the previous two, but we have character aplenty and some really fine thematic work, which resonates nicely.

Absent this week were Stannis, Davos, Dany, and Marg.

Another great analysis of this episode.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

I’m pretty sure the show has used this scenic arch from Dubrovnik a couple of time

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Television

Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 26, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jaime, Jon, Robb, Season 3, Season 3 Episode 26, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 25

Apr28

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 25 – April 28, 2013

Title: Kissed by Fire

Summary: Fire and oaths

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The name betrays the theme of the episode well enough: kissed by fire. Most scenes touch on the primary theme of fire and/or that of oaths and loyalty. This later is big in the books and series in general, as, hey: medieval times!

Arya – This is a great week for our favorite little Stark. As promised last time, the Hound faces off against Dondarian for his life, but not first without a little prayer (by Thyros) to the Lord of Light. As a huge proponent of the relationship between religion and magic, I dug this. Then we have a nice fight, reminiscent in many ways of the season 1 duel between Bronn and that dead knight for Tyrion’s life. Despite the fact that he’s terrified of fire, and Thyros’ sword is burning, the Hound does pretty well. I like the way the spectators have to dive out of the way.

Now this is a big spoiler, but Dondarian doesn’t make it — and he does — as Thyros brings him back just as simple as that. I loved this in the books, but it could have used a little more “magic” here on screen. These are hard moments for the show which doesn’t consistently embrace it’s mystical side. But revived Dondarian is true to his word and lets the Hound go.

Later, Gendry tells Arya he’s staying with the Brotherhood. Her journey is one of isolation, and one by one she loses her companions — bits of her burned away (haha). Gendry’s reasoning feels a little forced, but I like his parting line, even if I’m not sure if it means he “likes” Arya or if he knows he can never overcome their class differences — or both.

Even later (I told you we get a lot of good A), in the wake of Gendry’s withdrawal, Arya recites her list of cursed names. The show periodically include this motif, even if they can’t hammer it home the way Martin does in the books. Thyros plans to sell her to her brother at Riverrun, which while not totally honorable, isn’t exactly bad. We get a bit more detail on Dondarian, and the fact that he’s died and risen six times! Maybe he has lives three left.

Jaime – Jaime and Brienne are dragged into Harrenhall and dumped in the mud, but Martin loves a good reversal and as crappy as Jaime’s life has been, he’s due a little better. Bolton remains an enigma, but he does allow them to clean up and ships Jaime off to Qyburn, Bolton’s creepy would-be Maester. This is a nice example of squeezing a minor character into the show even when it doesn’t have room for the details. We can tell he’s one twisted creep — and the shots of picking at Jaime’s stump are pretty awful. Then (offscreen) it’s cleansed with a bit of fire (I know, I’m reaching).

Love at last sight

Later, Brienne is in the bath bathing, and Jaime — surprisingly recovered from a serious bit of surgery — wanders back in. Their chemistry remains fantastic, although it’s the Kingslayer who dominates this scene. First by strolling in the buck, then with his full tale of the death of the mad king. This pretty much puts the detailed spin on his glib comment some episodes before: “So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It’s too much. No matter what you do, you’re forsaking one vow or another.”

Oh, and let’s not forget this is a story about pyromancers and fire! Burn them all!

Hot or cold?

Jon – There is some serious kissing of fire for Jon. After a little foreplay where the wildlings get him to betray details about the Night’s Watch and he thumps his chest with fellow Warg (the eagle guy), Ygritte drags him off into a cave and strips down to her birthday suit — something I and all the fan boys have clearly been waiting for, as Rose is a serious babe. Jon may be (in Ygritte’s words) a “maid”, but evidently Theon gave him some tips, because he handles himself alright. At one level, a girl that’s been marching through the snow in a fur suit without a bath must be ripe, and Jon dives right in — on the other, she’s hot, naked, and kissed by fire! Their pillow talk revives the fun little banter that’s been missing for a couple episodes while Mance and crew took front stage.

And how fitting is it that Jon confronts the mystery in a cave?

go with hot!

Robb – This is also a big week for Robb, but not all is fine and dandy. Karstark, itching for a little “Northern Justice,” breaks in and murders those two young Lannister boys. Now Robb has some hard choices. This is one of his key bannermen, and he just disobeyed his orders. Cat and his wife urge that he throw him in a cell, and that’s what Karstark expects, but Robb is his father’s son. So on the oath front: a traitor is a traitor and off with his head.

and it was such a fuzzy head!

There is a serious examination here of the nature of severe command. Robb is basically screwed from the outset by Karstark’s actions. On one hand, he needs Karstark and his men, on the other, he can not condone the man’s behavior or be seen as weak or tolerant of such disobedience. Sucks to be the king.

Unfortunately, as predicted, this has drastic consequences, and the Karstark’s leave. Planning with his wife, he does realize that Casterly Rock (the Lannister home) is vulnerable — but also that he needs men from Walder Frey, who he’s already betrayed!

Stannis & Davos – On the thread of boredom, we actually get to see Stannis’ wife up close. She’s a weird one, so obsessed with the Lord of Light that she is all hunky dory with her husband sleeping with the red lady. Not only that, she keeps three stillborn fetuses (her previous efforts at heir generation) in Alien face-hugger style tanks! Creepy!

And it turns out that Stannis actually does have a daughter in this version. Since she was never mentioned season 2, I had assumed not, but he does — and she has grayscale as she should. Cute enough kid otherwise, plus, there is not a word of explanation of what the deal is with grayscale. When she finds out Davos is in the dungeon, she runs down to visit him, bringing him a book on Aegon the conquerer, which brings us to…

Dany – After last week’s fest of Dany goodness we don’t get a lot of time. She and her army are marching through Morocco (Papyrus beds choke the winding river). Jorah and Barristan take this time to continue trading war stories and working on their dislike for each other. Dany, meanwhile, is focused on business at hand, meeting the Unsullied officers and their new leader: the rather young Grey Worm.

Cersei – Always working her angle, sets Littlefinger on the task of ferreting out what the Tyrels are up too.

Sansa – is moving quickly into Marg’s camp. As she watches Loras practice, the girl’s chat about their wedding plans. Alas, the show quickly reminds us that Loras likes his buns a little firmer, as he quickly falls for a new (blond) squire.

But he works for Littlefinger — in what amounts to an abrupt bit of storytelling. The whoremonger quickly runs off to chat with Sansa and probe the waters. Babe in the woods, her attempts to put him off over his offer to steal her away are transparent to all. But this throwaway scene, besides showing great scenery, does have one of the show’s startling (for a fantasy) insights into human nature. Littlefinger comments: “it doesn’t matter what we want, when we get it, we always want something more.”

Be a passive tool, get handed the shaft

Tyrion – meets with lady Olena and finds himself — for pretty much the first time — out maneuvered in matters of the tongue. This scene gives us a few details on the royal finances, and a glimpse of a lovely Dubrovnik courtyard, but seems mostly about getting these two great characters together.

Later, these Kings Landing threads come together in the form of a leonine three way: Papa lion, Ty, and Cersei. Seems the easy solution to this whole “Tyrel plot to steal away Sansa” thing is to just marry her off to Tyrion. To his credit, he protests, but Tywin gets what he wants — and that also includes marrying Cersei off a second time to a guy who couldn’t care less about her: in this case, Loras!

All in all another great episode. We don’t have as many pivots or as much action as last week, but we do have a lot of great scenes. The tlot continues to plinken. Absent this week were Bran, Sam, Theon, Joff, and Varys.

Another interesting review of this episode.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

And below is “inside the episode” for this week:

Sansa prayed over there last week, and she and Marg wandered down those stairs. They must have magiced away the motorboat!

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Television

Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Kissed by Fire, Season 3, Season 3 Episode 25, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 22

Apr07

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 22 – April 7, 2013

Title: Dark Wings, Dark Words

Summary: Lots of great scenes

ANY CHARACTER HERE

There is a process of narrative separation happening with GOT, inherited from the novels. The first book of the series begins with two story threads and fractures into four. With the second, and increasingly so as the series progresses, the number of plots grows and grows. They interweave, split and merge. For good reasons of pacing and tension, the editors of the series inter-splice these during an episode, but I’m going to put them back together for the purposes of discussion.

Bran – Opens with a dream (he’s walking after all), that in several ways harkens back to both his previous three-eyed raven dreams and to the beginning of the first episode of the entire series. Two of the magics of Westeros are introduced and explained in this episode, with a clarity not present in the book. Martin is pretty much the ultimate example of “soft magic” in the fantasy genre, and rarely explains his mystical systems. But, for the sake of the TV audience, they’ve made it pretty clear here that Bran is both a “Worg” (able to cast his spirit into an animal — Summer) and has “The Sight” (clairvoyance of a classic sort). The dream here foreshadows the eminent arrival of the Reeds — who I actually thought the writers had compressed out of the story.

It’s also worth noting that several of the kids, most notably Bran, look A LOT older this season. It makes sense, he’s hitting puberty, and he’s taller, leaner, and his voice (and presumably balls) have dropped. Rickon looks older too.

In the second Bran vignette the Reeds actually show. Both of them. This show is sometimes willing to cast woman that aren’t always “cute” in the typical fashion of American productions. Anyway, the male half of the Reed duo (Jojen) serves to explain both mystical systems, hinting into actions of book 5. I also like that the wolves get some real presence, and they look good, and big.

Robb/Cat – The Robb portions always feel anemic because they don’t exist in the source material, although technically this merges in chunks of Cat’s narrative. We have a little moment with his wife, then Bolton (the usual go to man here) bringing double bad news. That of Winterfell’s destruction, and of Cat’s father’s death. This is a substantial change from the book where we go to Riverrun on several occasions and Cat hangs out with the dying Holster Tully. No more.

The second vignette has them on the move to the funeral and takes an opportunity to remind the audience that Robb’s new marriage was politically disastrous. Then a moment with the wife and Cat, which given Cat’s hard side in season 2 is uncharacteristic, but perhaps she’s shaken up by the loss of her father. It’s also a change from the books, where she makes up a complex emotional story about her feelings toward Jon Snow, which in season 1 were pretty cruel. The scene shows to return our sympathy toward her, and I have to say, given how hard she felt, it’s probably a welcome change.

It’s also worth noting a favorite stylistic technic of the series, in that the last line/thought of one scene sets up the next. So we transition from thoughts of Jon to:

Jon – Sure has gotten in close with Mance quickly, as their marching together across the countryside. We learn a bit about the composition of the Wildlings and then get a sort of show and tell demo of the Worg powers where a guy is remote controlling his hawk. We hear about dead crows and then again to:

Sam – Our viewpoint back with the crow expedition. Not my favorite scene, as Sam isn’t looking to good. Although I like how the Commander handles the situation.

Theon – We have two Theon scenes! More and more the show is taking on a life of its own. Theon is basically absent from books 3 and 4. But here he’s captive of the Bastard of Bolton (presumably) and subject to some nasty torture. Nail pulling and a some variant of the knee splitter? Yes, I know way too much about medieval torture, as clearly do Martin and the other writers (they did after all, last year, include the Rat Torture, and it’s alluded to in this episode). But then at the end, we have a big change: a guy is there “sent by his sister” to rescue him! Does he evade the long skinny shadow of Reek in the show?

Joff – He’s such a shit, but such a delicious shit to watch in action. We get a study of contrasts in terms of the relationships with the two major women in his life. First up is mom, and she ain’t doing too well because while this Cersei comes off as considerably smarter and more reasonable (if still a cold bitch) than in the novels, she sure is losing control over her madman of a son.

Second, Marg comes to visit, and even with Joff being not only a shit, but in a shit mood, she manages to wrap him around her little finger. This is one talented handler, as she knows just how to appeal to his vanity and perverse interests. Here we see Joff at his more vulnerable, really a disturbed little boy (and still an unredeemable human being). Also, I have to admit, Marg with the crossbow was kinda hot. There is also, some what oddly, continued and voluminous mention of Renly’s sexual orientation. This was only vaguely hinted (obvious, but subtle) in the novel, but is a subject of continuous over the head beating here. I wonder why?

Sansa – She and Shae are talking and Shae is getting protective. She too has taken on a depth and complexity not present in the novels. Loras visits and brings Sansa to have tea with Marg and her Grandmom, Dame Tyrell. Well, the dame is one funny lady, well played, and disarmingly direct. Good fun. Sansa does a deft job handling the crisis, because she’s under A LOT of emotional pressure with no outlet, and she can’t help but seize one.

Tyrion – Uncharacteristically has only one brief scene in the episode, with Shae, but their back and forth is highly entertaining, and further develops her character — and his.

Arya – Finally we return to beloved Arya (my favorite character along with Tyrion), alas, all too briefly. As she, Hotpie, and Gendry march through the forest, Gendry makes obvious what we all felt last season: that Arya chose rather poorly who to have Jaqen kill. Then they wander right into Thyros of Myr’s little party. This is an amusing scene and I’m already liking the lush of a priest (although no mention of his relgio-magical side yet).

Arya has also grown over the year and it’s getting harder for her to pass as boyish. Nice longbow also.

In the second segment, Thyros gets into his cups and Arya scenes are great as always. Then some of his men drag in the Hound. I can’t remember if this happened so soon in the books, and I don’t think in the same way. I’m wondering if the undead Lord Beric Dondarrion will make an appearance.

Jaime – I saved Jaime for last because we end with him, even though he shows twice. He and Brienne make for great fun because she’s such a stick in the mud and he’s a riot. I particularly like the way in which he’s so endearingly baiting, only to occasionally soften with a meaningful and honest line (like the “we don’t choose who we love” from the above clip). Perhaps it’s because his style of banter is actually so honest, if deliberately provocative.

His maneuver to trick the sword away from Brienne and the fight that follows is delicious as well. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau really does have a natural charisma. And we end with the usual uh, oh.

Overall, a fun episode, if not particularly meaty in any one area. Lots of great scenes. Each individual story is but a blip in the bigger picture. When viewed one at a time, they feel a bit fragmented, but from the perspective I’ve gotten watching seasons 1 and 2 all together on Blu-ray (which looks awesome BTW), I think it will feel coherent as part of the continuous whole.

Another interesting review of this episode.

Or see my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

My three year-old at the gardens where Sansa chats with Grandma Tyrell

By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 22, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Season 3 Episode 2, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – The 1984 Miniseries

Mar14

If Game of Thrones had aired when I was growing up, in the era of Krull and Beastmaster, the titles might have looked a little like this:

NOTE, that while the makers of this video say 1995 style, it feels more 80s to me. Power chords?

And another amusing GOT video, this one cutting together bits from the Princess Bride (one of my all time favorite movies by master craftsman William Goldman).

An awesome 3/18/13 trailer, “no mercy” which includes a Daft Punk (Tron) soundtrack!

A 3/20/13 trailer called “Enemies”:

And less funny, but perhaps cooler, the latest (3/15/13) official promo:

And another promo, apparently from 3/16/13:

Don’t miss these Season 3 trailers of and making of videos.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

By: agavin
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Tagged as: 1984, a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, game of thrones season 3, game of thrones spoof, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, miniseries, Season 3, season 3 trailer, spoof video, television titles

Game of Thrones – Season 3 Goodies

Jan23

We’re entering that most exciting time of year: the ramp up and entry into a new Game of Thrones season. HBO has begun doling out the material.

First up, the brand new (as of 3/2/13) Season 3 Trailer, extended edition!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=C1pbtBX9Kok]

and the original 2/21/13 Season 3 Trailer:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RzI9v_B4sxw]

Then the 2/10/13 season 3 teaser!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1iTg20x7w2s]

Then, we have a piece on the Art Direction. This includes some cool glimpses of upcoming locations and characters.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3y5aCWFuKo]

Then even more interesting is one on adaption. They don’t say a lot, but as someone who works at storytelling in various mediums (games, novels, and screenplays) I find this fascinating. A Song of Ice and Fire isn’t your typical work, with a single narrative spine to adapt and compress. The same basic mantras of compression apply as they do in most novel -> film/TV adaptions, but the details are much more complex.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VB0JA78wJ4]

And one with the two main producers and a lot of the cast on the season 3 highlights.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaedhISdshA#!]

And January 31 brings us a fourth video about Iceland:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3-hlG6Nn1s]

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Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Iceland, Season 3, season 3 preview, season 3 teaser, season3 trailer, Song of Ice and Fire, Television

Game of Thrones – Season 2 CGI

Aug13

This video — unfortunately narrated in German — shows many season 2 Game of Thrones FX shots both before and after. I find particularly interesting how they modify real locations, grafting on and extending the world.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvDE1kpm1eg]

I was actually just in Dubrovnik last month, so when I next watch Season 2 (bound to happen soon enough) I want to keep an eye out for the locations.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Me on the walls of Kings Landing — achem, Dubrovnik

This is my own photo of the same wall that is behind Tyrion and Varys as they look out over the sea. I thought so at the time from memory but I didn’t have the shot in front of me to compose it the same.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, CGI, Computer Graphics, Dubrovnik, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Season 2, special effects, Visual effects

Game of Thrones – Episode 11

Apr01

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 11 – April 1, 2012

Title: The North Remembers

Summary: Amazing!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

It is with great relish and anticipation that I sat down to devour the first episode of Season 2 of Game of Thrones — and it didn’t disappoint. Like many of the earlier episodes in season 1 this is an establishing episode where we rotate through the players and put into place who is where on the board. But it does suffer a bit from Martin’s widely expanded scope in A Clash of Kings. There are so many characters in so many different places that we see each major thread exactly once, for what is usually two scenes. Arya we barely see at all, only for a tiny shot at the end, and Renly not even that. Only Cersei and Joffrey get multiple segments as they are at the center of things in King’s landing. This left me licking my lips, like after two sips of wine. I can’t help but feel the season would have been better served by twelve hours and a two hour premier.

Still, I have no major complaints. Already I’m getting the feeling that the producers have taken steps to address a couple of my major problems with season 1 (and don’t get me wrong, I adored it). The shots felt bigger. The new King’s Landing feels a little different, and certainly larger, and it’s vaguely obvious they moved from Malta to Dubrovnik. It looks more coastal now, with the sea close at hand. Malta is an Island, but it didn’t feel that way in the show. There are also several notable dire wolf shots in the first episode. All CGI, but who cares, I’m just glad to see the wolves. Although where was Ghost?

Tyrion is awesome as always, I just wish we had more of him. Two young veterans from Skins are in evidence too (Gendry and Craster’s daughter Gilly). Joffery is not only as unloveable as ever, but actually seems to be getting more nuance than in the books and hence Cersei also. I really like the way it’s showing him getting away from her. With what he does to Dontos they take a page from Caligula (I can’t remember if it went that way in the books). The new characters are fine. Stannis comes off as cold an ass as he should. Davos seems likable, although it’s hard to tell in three minutes. The sad enter of his Maester though lacked any real punch as there was no time in the abbreviated version to actually build any sympathy for him or his position. I’m still cold on Melisandre. I’m no big fans of the whole Stannis sub-plot in the books. And one wonders why the hell we have Ros in here at all, and how a provincial whore from the backwaters of Winterfell is suddenly the high and mighty mistress of a King’s Landing brothel. And that scene starts off the most significant change from the books (SPOILER ALERT) an early purge of Robert’s bastards. Perhaps it’s just the producers trimming down the cast or perhaps it’s just add even more drama and menace.

All in all, I just want to see more. But we have to wait a week, sigh.

Some clips from this episode can be found here

or See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire, episode 11, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Season 2, season 2 episode 1, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Very Best Fantasy

Mar22

I’m frequently asked for a list of favorite novels and big influences on my own writing. So I drew up this list. In order to prevent my head exploding I kept it exclusively to adult fantasy. I have plenty more favorites in other genres, but this will keep anyone busy for a while — particularly considering many are the first in a series.

The Anubis Gates

by Tim Powers

Time travel, crazy 4,000 year old Egyptian sorcerers, romantic poets, and Victorian England. Oh, and it all works brilliantly.

A Game of Thrones

by George R.R. Martin

Simply the best modern fantasy work. The scope is huge, the characters intensely real, and the medieval-ness (as in “go all medieval on his ass”) is incredible.

The Name of the Wind

by Patrick Rothfuss

NOTW is a beautiful book. Of all the Fantasy I’ve read in the last 15 or so years, this is perhaps second best after The Song of Ice and Fire. But that’s not to say that they have much in common, other than both being good Fantasy. NOTW is focused and relies on more traditional Fantasy tropes. How focused can a 700 page novel be? Not very, but it is good, and it concentrates on a small number of characters and a single (albiet meandering) storyline.

Wizard and Glass

by Stephen King

Stephen King’s best. Almost pure fantasy, told with his knack for making even the weirdest situations and dialog believable.

The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10

by Roger Zelazny

Hokey at times, but I just love the concept and feel of this reality bender. The pattern has haunted me for decades.

Master of the Five Magics

by Lyndon Hardy

Pure fun fantasy, but I love solid attempts to systematize and render magic into a real and “believable” system.

Carrion Comfort

by Dan Simmons

A horrific journey into the depths and nature of evil. One of the most chilling books I have ever read.

Wild Seed

by Octavia E. Butler

History, two kinds of immortals, themes of slavery and freedom, breeding of genetic powers. How can you beat that?

The True Game

by Sheri S. Tepper

I love this world in which “powers” come in systematic flavors which combine into unique specialties of super power.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Andy Gavin, Anubis Gates, Contemporary fantasy, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, George RR Martin, Song of Ice, Song of Ice and Fire, Stephen King, Tim Powers, Very Best Fantasy, Victorian era

Game of Thrones – Renly’s Armor

Jan05

I can’t resist a little continued geek out and bringing you a video on the making of Renly Baratheon’s armor for season 2 of Game of Thrones.

What’s most impressive about this is not the look per se, but the incredible attention to detail lavished on each and every little item and prop. Truth is, you can’t obviously TELL that this is a unique “fashion prince” take on scale mail, but it’s part of what makes the show look fairly medieval, and not all lame shiny like say… King Author. Oh and then there is the fact that it’s well written. And that’s the most important thing of course.

My full episode by episode coverage of season 1 can be found here.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

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Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Armor, Art, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Mail, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

The Game of Thrones Set – Belfast

Dec20

Yet more Game of Thrones goodies. This one details the effort of capturing the look from the Belfast set (Northern Ireland for the geographically challenged).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql6kqCK_85g]

Check out my own Fantasy novel, The Darkening Dream.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Belfast, Game of Thrones, HBO, Making of, Northern Ireland, Programs, Television, Television program

New Game of Thrones 2 Teaser

Dec11

The nerdgasm continues! HBO released another Game of Thrones Season 2 teaser.

12) click here!

NOTE: This is the one released on December 11, 2011, if you want the new January 29, 2012 trailer with more footage from the season, click here, an even newer February 24 version here, and the March 10 one here or the March 18 one here.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBrsM_WlfV8&feature=youtu.be]

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

By: agavin
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Another Game of Thrones Peek

Dec08

An Icelandic TV station aired this peek at the end of shooting in Iceland for Season 2 of Game of Thrones (the awesome HBO Fantasy series). It even includes a glimpse of Ygritte (one of my favorite characters from the series) around the 6:30 mark.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JkFjvggMouU]

Interesting those volcanic and glacier landscapes. Pretty alien looking, and this is only Iceland, I think GreenLand might be even more foreboding. But certainly this makes a great looking “beyond the wall” — which is a major part of books 2 and 3. I don’t envy them shooting on an Icelandic glacier in December! There’s probably two hours of sunlight up there too.

And also today there is another making of video on HBO’s site, this one about one of my favorite topics, medieval hand to hand combat! Nothing like a good war hammer to the head. Shuts ’em up quickly, does it right.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Iceland, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Television program, Ygritte

Game of Thrones Season 2 Peek

Nov20

Finally, a bit of Game of Thrones season 2 footage. Yummy.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE12H1HorUU]

I can’t wait for more.

Check out my detailed coverage of season 1 here.

Or a look at my own books here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Arts and Entertainment, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Television, Visual effects

More Game of Thrones CGI

Aug05

My post showing Game of Throne’s transparent CGI was wildly successful (over 25,000 views on my site alone). Apparently its been popular across the web at large because the SFX company released another video of even more.

Particularly interesting is how many of the weapon strike shots (getting stabbed, speared, shot etc) are all added in with CGI. Traditionally this was just done with quick cuts, trick weapons, and fake blood. Now, evidently, it’s cheaper (and better looking) to just have the actors pantomime the response and fill in the weapon and gore. All those latex horror effects guys must be out of jobs!

This is a very effective means of conveying what they’ve done, and also shows you how weird the rough cut of the show must look without the visual effects. And, also tells you why they need six months after wrapping filming to get the show out!

You can check out the first video here, or

my reviews of each episode of Season 1 of Game of Thrones (the HBO series):

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9, 10]

Read my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed
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By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire, CGI, Computer Graphics, Computer-generated imagery, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, SFX, Song of Ice and Fire, Special effect, Television, Television program, Visual effects

Game of Thrones – CGI

Jul29

This is a very interesting little video showing off how the Game of Thrones locations are built up using Computer Graphics, substituting effectively for matte painting in traditional film.

In my extensive reviews of the show one thing I’ve noted is that the “foreground” CGI elements are a little thin. There aren’t much in the way of magical swirls, lightning bolts (LOL) etc. The backgrounds however are incredibly lush — and subtly so, bringing to life the rich and detailed world. This video shows the intricate relationship between the art of the location scout, the set dressers, overall planners, and the CGI team. Pretty impressive!

Also don’t miss this second video with more effects, this includes a lot of action shots (getting stabbed, etc).

Read my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire, CGI, Computer Graphics, Computer-generated imagery, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Matte painting

A Dance With Dragons

Jul24

Title: A Dance With Dragons

Author: George R. R. Martin

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Length: 959 pages, circa 400,000 words

Read: July 12-23, 2011

Summary: Awesome, but not without issues.

ANY CHARACTER HERE

My charge through book 5 of Martin’s epic fantasy series was a bit drawn out by my need to concentrate on the second draft of my new novel Untimed, but I finally finished. Before I launch in, it should be noted that this review is full of spoilers.

Dance is huge, weighing in at nearly 1,000 pages. This itself is actually a welcome and comforting fact because these books are something to savor. Overall, I would rate this volume as better than A Feast of Crows and slightly worse than the first three. Still, it’s a fantastic book. Prose-wise, Martin is still a master at both people, places, plotting and reversals. It’s just that this book suffers from a few pacing and structural issues.

Most of these stem from his controversial decision to pull out half the characters from the bloated manuscript of Feast and push them into Dance by themselves. So the first two thirds of the new book is everyone who didn’t get a turn in Feast. Now, for the most part, this saved the best for last. Dany, Jon, and Tyrion make up the bulk of the book, particularly this first two thirds, and they are some of my favorite characters. But overall this leaves both Feast and Dance feeling a little more threadbare than the first three books. Personally I think he would have been much better off winding out the story chronologically, trimming out some useless threads (Aeron Damphair, Victarion, and probably the Dornes), and rearranging the plot so as to have some kind of sub-climax at the end of each book.

As it is, Dance reads excellently for the first 2/3, feeling fairly focused on its three mains. But it’s weird to rewind in time and revisit certain happenings from Feast from the other side (for example Sam leaving the Wall). When we get to the cut off point, however, some of the characters from Feast start to weave back in. This mostly has the effect of slowing the narrative and making it more diffuse. At least until the set of cliffhangers and deaths that come in the final chapters.

I also think that Martin is letting his pacing slip a bit. It’s not that each chapter isn’t entertaining and well written — they are — but many threads there have multiple chapters where the happenings could’ve been collapsed without loss. If we hadn’t known a few of those details were there, we would never have missed them. Worse than the pacing issues, however, is a weirdly increasing fondness for skipping some of the big moments. Now Martin has always done that (the Red Wedding, the “death” of Bran & Rickon, etc) but it’s worse than ever. He has a real tendency to build slowly toward a big event, then skip the event itself, showing what happened to the characters obliquely through other eyes at a much later point.

I’m going to go through some of my opinions and analysis thread by thread.

Prologue

I don’t really understand why fantasy authors are obsessed with these. It was kind of interesting, but didn’t advance anything.

Jon

His thread is fine (until the end), but it does feel a bit static. While he’s certainly grown into command, he mostly sits back at the wall and fields interference between factions (Stannis, his queen, the Red Priestess, the Wildlings) etc. Then at the end, he mysteriously decides to rush off to Winterfell. This is a move that makes no sense as he has refused to enter into family entanglements about six times before, and while he is goaded, there is really less at stake for him. Then out of nowhere comes a reaction to this decision that leaves us in a bad cliffhanger. Boo.

Tyrion

The Imp is funny as always and now I can hear Peter Dinklage cracking each and every droll line. Still his thread is also a little dragged out, although it does involve some great sightseeing and is certainly entertaining all along. In the first part of the book it feels like he (and everyone else) is heading toward Dany, but then he gets within inches and turns back. Using him to introduce us to Griff and “Young Griff” is however an excellent device and works much better than an extra POV would have. It is mostly through Tyrion and Dany that we get a sense of the complex and old slave societies of the mainland. Unlike Westeros which feels like late Medieval England, these realms feel more like the ancient east (perhaps an updated Babylon vibe).

Dany

Her chapters are mostly political. She does feel a bit passive. I don’t really understand why she doesn’t try to get a handle on her dragons earlier, this is obviously a key move which could trump all of her political problems. Instead she dicks around (literally and figuratively) with various factions. This is all fairly entertaining, but feels like treading water. Then “a big event occurs” (at least this one is on screen) and she rides off on Drogon. That’s all great, but her narrative disappears until the last chapter. When it returns nothing is resolved at all, but a new out of the blue cliffhanger is introduced. I do really like the world of Meereen and the slave cities, although it feels like we are lingering here a bit long.

Barristan

The hero serves to replace Dany as the POV in Meereen. He’s actually a great POV character with all his lingering thoughts about events during and before Robert’s Rebellion. I really enjoyed his chapters. But they didn’t come to any resolution.

Theon

The hier to the seastone chair returns to us, a few bits worse for the wear. I hated Theon in books 2 & 3, but I enjoyed his chapters immensely here. His transformation into Reek and back again is very deftly handled, with a very proper (and sordid) period quality. It isn’t for no reason that Tarantino used the phrase “medieval on his ass” and that is exactly what the Bastard of Bolton has done to Theon. His pseudo redemption is good. Still, we have classic Martin avoidance of the action with the actual escape from Winterfell. In the cut between Theon jumping from the wall into the snows and his delivery to his sister is a big blank. Not that we needed the travel, but whatever battle happened at Winterfell needed some detailing.

Asha

I could have lived without her POV. It mostly serves to fill in some parts of Stannis’s story when he leaves the wall. The technique is sketchy and I ended up having no idea what really happened during his brutal snowy march and the seige of Winterfell. This I thought was the weakest part of the book structurally, as I’m basically confused.

Quentin and the Dornes

Cut! Dull for the most part, except for some info about the cultures they traveled through. I couldn’t have cared less for these characters. The attempt to steal a dragon was interesting, but was also vaguely described. I’m thinking that Martin, for all his brilliance as a character and world builder, isn’t actually the best at action scenes.

The Dorne chapter back in Dorne: It was okay, but we didn’t really need it.

Jaime

This sucked. I like Jaime’s POVs, but this single chapter had a bunch of crap, followed by one of those annoying Martin reveals that just serve to highlight the gap in information. Brienne returns and they ride off. You don’t find out how she escaped her predicament, what she knows, anything. It just kinda sucked. The effect of her cliffhanger was entirely spoiled.

Cersei

These were pretty good, and I enjoyed seeing her get hers. Martin certainly knows how to throw in the creepy little details so your mind fills in the rest.

Victarion

Cut! I could have lived without these, and they basically just told you he was heading off to Dany with a horn and a Red Priest. Although he’s better than his brother — I’d take any chapter over Aeron Damphair.

Arya

These were great. I have no idea where they’re going, but that’s fine. Arya has always been one of my favorites. Give us more. To be honest it felt like these were the chapters that should have gone in Feast and this the conclusion that book should have had for Arya’s thread. Probably that was Martin’s original plan.

Bran

His chapters were good, but so little, and it all felt dropped as his last chapter is about midway in the book.

Davos

I’ve never been a fan. I think we could have just had these told by raven.

Epilogue

This was actually very good, really being a Kevan in King’s Landing chapter in disguise. I loved the return of Varys at the end — particularly his dialog.

Some observations: There is more magic of sorts in this volume. Martin has a real thing for nubile slave girls — but then again, what self respecting fantasist doesn’t? The scope of this book, with it’s gigantic foreign cities reminiscent of the ancient world is going to make for some hard adapting should the TV series get this far. As I noted in my series reviews the show already has problems with handling large scale people scenes. These slave cities and the like will make that even harder. Likewise with the slave sex and slave violence. I’m all over it (in fiction) but some of it will undoubtedly have to be cut/changed. Sigh. I like that Martin at least highlights some of the sad reality of actually being a nubile slave girl.

Overall, Martin’s books are among my all-time favorite novels. I enjoyed the book immensely, and eagerly await the the next volume (and I’m sure I’ll be waiting for a long time), but I can’t help but think it could have been SO much better if Martin had taken all the material in both Feast and Dragons and reedited them together into two chronological and slightly leaned down volumes.

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or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

By: agavin
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Posted in: Books

Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, A Feast for Crows, A Song of Ice and Fire, A Storm of Swords, Fantasy, Fiction, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, High fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Novel, Novel Review, novels, Peter Dinklage, Television program

Making Game of Thrones

Apr07

HBO has posted a new 25 minute Making of Game of Thrones video which is really good.

CLICK here for my review of Episode 1 of the upcoming series,

or HERE for more videos about the series.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Television

Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Song of Ice and Fire, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – The Houses

Mar16

With the premier of Game of Thrones, the HBO series based on what is perhaps my all time favorite Fantasy series, fast approaching, the network has been releasing all sorts of goodies. Now I’ve posted about this before, but these books, and it looks like the show, are so darkly delicious that I fell I must share.

Power (above) is new trailer.

Fear and Blood (above) is another new trailer for the show in general.

Then we have a whole series of videos on some of the most important Great Houses. Like Dune before it, Game of Thrones is a story about the interplay of politics and loyalty among a number of great factions. This was frequently true during the late middle ages, and to some extent the series is based a bit on the War of the Roses.

The Starks (above) are the moral center of the story.

House Baratheon holds the throne… for now.

The Lannister’s you love to hate — except for Tyrion who rules.

House Targaryen knows all about dragons.

Above is a more detailed video on Jaime Lannister.

and above Robb Stark.

Above is Littlefinger.

and above about the world in general.

For a review of episode 1, click here.

By: agavin
Comments (9)

Posted in: Books, Television

Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, books, Dune, Fiction, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Late Middle Ages, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, reviews, Sean Bean, Television, War of the Roses, Wars of the Roses, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Inside Game of Thrones

Dec06

HBO has been working on a new hour drama based on my favorite fantasy series, Song of Ice and Fire, which they’re calling by the title of the first book, Game of Thrones. Last night they ran a 15 minute teaser which can be seen here.

I need to do a full review of the series, which you should all immediately read if you haven’t, but it totally rules, and the HBO show looks fantastic too. The books are long, but incredibly fast paced. Set in a sort of fantastic reinterpretation of late medieval England, the magic is very lightly handled. In fact, the story concentrates on extremely vivid and ambiguous characters caught in a vicious political struggle. It’s very dark and real — giving new meaning to the Tarantino phrase, “I’ma get medieval on your ass.” However, nothing’s gratuitous, just well done.