Poll: Winter Is Coming - HBO's A Game of Thrones [READ WARNING]

Who will rule Westeros?

  • Total voters
    471
  • Poll closed .
manveruppd said:
Got a question about folks watching this who haven't read the books (if it's been asked already please ignore me, I'm new to the thread and don't feel like reading the past 400 posts!:))

Are you following? :p I'm not being condescending, it's just that they tend to throw a lot of characters at you without explaining their relationships, or mention characters by name when they're off-screen without ever having named them while they were on-screen (the Stark kids in particular - if I hadn't read the book I wouldn't have known which was which, and I don't think it's actually explicitly stated that Jon is Ned's ******* son - hope the swearie filter doesn't grab this - until WELL into the first episode, so at the beginning when they find the wolf cubs the significance of him saying "I'm not a Stark" would be lost to most).

It's typical HBO in that sense (Wire and Generation Kill were like that), and I know I had trouble following with those (especially the Wire where I couldn't even understand the accents of some characters!), so that's why I thought I'd ask - are you finding it hard? Are you relying on summaries/family trees on Wikipedia or HBO's site? Or are you just happily following without a problem?
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I think it's pretty easy to follow the main characters, (House of Stark/Lannister/Arynn/Targaryen) I pretty much know them all by name. I only really have problems remembering who the other characters like Petyr Baelish are, and their relationship to the main houses.

When does this air in the UK?
 
manveruppd said:
Got a question about folks watching this who haven't read the books (if it's been asked already please ignore me, I'm new to the thread and don't feel like reading the past 400 posts!:))

Are you following? :p I'm not being condescending, it's just that they tend to throw a lot of characters at you without explaining their relationships, or mention characters by name when they're off-screen without ever having named them while they were on-screen (the Stark kids in particular - if I hadn't read the book I wouldn't have known which was which, and I don't think it's actually explicitly stated that Jon is Ned's ******* son - hope the swearie filter doesn't grab this - until WELL into the first episode, so at the beginning when they find the wolf cubs the significance of him saying "I'm not a Stark" would be lost to most).

It's typical HBO in that sense (Wire and Generation Kill were like that), and I know I had trouble following with those (especially the Wire where I couldn't even understand the accents of some characters!), so that's why I thought I'd ask - are you finding it hard? Are you relying on summaries/family trees on Wikipedia or HBO's site? Or are you just happily following without a problem?
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I think it makes for much better entertainment when viewers aren't spoon fed every piece of information that's relevant to a story (this includes Game of Thrones as well as other recent Fantasy/Sci Fi shows). Jon said he wasn't a Stark, and he's been called a ******* by others, easy enough to put two and two together without it being spelt out in dialogue. I much prefer it when the writers credit their viewers with the intelligence to work things out on their own.

I imagine it would get pretty tedious to introduce such a huge cast of characters all in one go, with all of their names, relationships and backgrounds especially near the start, it would get confusing, which would put off allot of viewers very quickly.

Really liking this so far, Tyrion and Arya are the stand out characters for me so far, they really steal each scene they're in, especially the former. The stuff happening across the sea with the Dothraki is getting interesting (Is Jason Momoa/Khal Drogo ever going to speak more than a few words? :p).
 
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manveruppd said:
are you finding it hard?
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I was looking for this thread to see if others were picking up on things that didn't make much sense - or as you say, people being mentioned and I don't know who they mean.

Are the two blonde kids related to the kings wife and that family? The lad who Ned went to see - he thinks thats the son of John A who he said is dead - BUT isn't John A the dude with the blonde kids?

Was the queens family originally on the throne - her father being the mad king? The current king Robert killed the mad king, became king and married her?
So what about the blonde kids - wasn't their family on the throne?

Whats the deal with the dude doing the bad Gary Oldman impression?

I like it but I'm not really following it. Tidy bit of raunch too :)
 
From what I could gather, the blacksmith's boy that ned found, is the illegitimate son of Robert Baratheon (king).

The Targaryen twins, are the sole survivors of the family that ruled before the Baratheon took the iron throne (assisted by ned).

The queen, is one of the lannister family, one of the seven houses that basically fight over the throne.


Understanding the show is a real trick, and you really have to be able to not only pick up on what is assumed, but also to be able to quickly identify the affiliations of new characters.. a lot is said in very short order..
 
Thought it was a fantastic episode. Managed to fit a good bit of all the characters and the script and acting were excellent. The Lannisters are definitely my favourites atm.
 
Ceryndrion said:
From what I could gather, the blacksmith's boy that ned found, is the illegitimate son of Robert Baratheon (king).

The Targaryen twins, are the sole survivors of the family that ruled before the Baratheon took the iron throne (assisted by ned).

The queen, is one of the lannister family, one of the seven houses that basically fight over the throne.
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Right gotcha. Pretty much clears up all the bits I wasn't 100% on, thanks!

So does Ned think that the guy with the Targaryen twins is dead?


Edit - are the books worth a read? I've read nothing but Warhammer 40K books for the last 3 years so could probably do with a change. :)
 
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EddScott said:
Right gotcha. Pretty much clears up all the bits I wasn't 100% on, thanks!

So does Ned think that the guy with the Targaryen twins is dead?
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he is an exiled knight

theres 7 different families fighting for the throne.

blonde people came on dragons and became king

after they were defeated mad king became king

now its the fat guy who is king


blonde people are all dead apart from the 2 now in a different country

mad kings family is all dead apart from ******* son (i think)

fat guy who is currently ruling is married to one of the lannister twins.

lannisters were in power at some point i think but they were ousted somehow and are weak, waiting for the perfect time to strike. i think their uncle may have been the mad king or something like that. but the lannister twin killed the mad king, so im not sure on this, whether he killed his own uncle/father.

queen lannister is sleeping with her twin brother who is a knight for the king.


the incest in this is crazy, i thought they only slept with cousins back in the day? this is like the borgias but more extreme.
 
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In short. Westeros used to be 7 kingdoms (which is why its known as the 7 Kingdoms lol) but Aegon Targaryen (Aegon the Conquerer) came from Dragonstone and conquered all the seven kingdoms (with his dragons). They were then under Targaryen rule until Robert's rebellion against the mad king Aerys Targaryen (all the dragons were dead by this point), Daenerys and Viserys are his 2nd and 3rd children and the only ones known to have escaped (they are not twins just brother and sister).

Lannisters are blonde, Targaryens are silver haired. Due to great houses interbreeding they are all probably related way back in time but I think Robert the current king and Viserys and Dani share a great grandfather. The Lannisters are not closely related to either the Targaryens or Robert's house (Baratheon).

Lannister were not in power since their kingdom were conquered by Aegon, Jaime Lannister was part of the mad king's kingsguard (and is part of Robert's kingsguard).

Ned knows that the Targaryen's are alive because there is a discussion about it in the second/third episode with Robert.
 
daver said:
In short. Westeros used to be 7 kingdoms (which is why its known as the 7 Kingdoms lol) but Aegon Targaryen (Aegon the Conquerer) came from Dragonstone and conquered all the seven kingdoms (with his dragons). They were then under Targaryen rule until Robert's rebellion against the mad king Aerys Targaryen (all the dragons were dead by this point), Daenerys and Viserys are his 2nd and 3rd children and the only ones known to have escaped (they are not twins just brother and sister).

Lannisters are blonde, Targaryens are silver haired. Due to great houses interbreeding they are all probably related way back in time but I think Robert the current king and Viserys and Dani share a great grandfather. The Lannisters are not closely related to either the Targaryens or Robert's house (Baratheon).

Lannister were not in power since their kingdom were conquered by Aegon, Jaime Lannister was part of the mad king's kingsguard (and is part of Robert's kingsguard).

Ned knows that the Targaryen's are alive because there is a discussion about it in the second/third episode with Robert.
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Why do the Starks hate the Lannisters? Where's the bad blood between them?
 
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