A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Spoiler-Filled Discussion

^ Thanks, Ser Moody!!

Cheers,
-CM-

 

Lots of reviews of A Dance with Dragons are popping up online, with varying degrees of spoilers. There's a list of them, with notes on how spoilery they are, at Westeros.org. My own review, which includes a spoiler-free modified version of the comments I posted above, and a more formal review with a few mild spoilers, is here.

 

Reviews are coming out

Time says ADWD is a "Masterpiece worthy of Tolkien", while the Daily Beast states "Machiavelli, you have met your match in Martin"

Time: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2081774,00.html

Daily Beast:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...ook-in-his-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-series.html

 

Casting News:

http://winter-is-coming.net/2011/07/our-first-season-two-cast-leak/

Logan Kerr is (potentially) Mathos Mallarawen:

http://www.spotlight.com/interactive/cv/M138769.html

 

Gemma Whelan is Yara (formerly Asha) Greyjoy.

 

Yara Greyjoy, eh?

I get Robin Arryn (between Robb Stark and Robert Baratheon there's a lot of Robs on this show), so I wonder why they changed Asha's name.

I had to google Mathos Mallarawan to find out who the hell that was. Even then I don't really remember him and I read these books earlier this year.

Hm. Frankly maybe it's just me but I got a vaguely Middle Eastern/Mediterranean vibe from Qarth, and as nice as it is to cast yet another Irish actor in Thrones, Logan doesn't fit that bill at all... but eh.

 

It has been suggested that the name change might be to avoid confusion with Osha.

It would seem that my unfamiliarity with the books caused a bit of confusion. When I found the CV I looked on ASoIaF wiki for 'Mathos' and found a single character. It has since emerged that Mr. Logan isn't playing the thrice mentioned Mr. Mallarawan, it would seem that he's playing Matthos Seaworth.

 

Osha, of course! Figured it'd be something like that, but my mind was at a blank as to who Asha could be confused for.

Well that casting actually makes sense. Looking forward to finding out who's playing his father Davos, obviously.

 

A new casting clue from GRRM seems to confirm that Gwendoline Christie, long a fan favorite for Brienne, has been cast in the role.

(Christie was in the music video for a song on the same album as one about Isabella of France, called the she-wolf, has been on stage at the Barbican theatre, and worked with an Australian photographer on a project called Bunny Nose. And the post with the clue is titled "I'm Blue.")

An alternate theory is that the post refers to Sophie Marceau, who played an unusually sympathetic Isabella in Aussie Mel Gibson's Braveheart, and has had films at the Barbican. If so, she's presumably not Brienne.

 

Huh.

Someone who clearly looks way too telegenic to be Brienne (something I observed upthread, actually) was actually the fan favourite? I thought fans were big on characters resembling their book counterparts.

 

Well, so I gather from the early response to this announcement; I haven't followed people's casting preferences. (And there are people saying she's too thin and too pretty.) I imagine the fact that she's so tall is a big part of it.

 

Also, here's a photo of Christie without makeup: link.

 

The biggest thing she has going is that A)She is TALL and B) She is not so hot, that you can't ugly her down a little. In fact she is kind of average.

And GRRM has confirmed it:

http://grrm.livejournal.com/227044.html

 

They're going to have to, honestly. I do wonder how hard it would have been to find actually unattractive actors... but whatever.

Even were that true, Brienne isn't.

 

thank god for make up

 

Considering they didn't go to any great lengths to make Tyrion look 'grotesque,' I didn't expect them to do so for Brienne, either. I've never heard of this actress, but with the proper costuming and makeup I'm sure she'll make for a perfectly fine Brienne. It's the performance that matters most, anyway.

 

Gwendoline Christie is 6'3" - that's a lot of woman!

I get that they may be concerned about confusion with Osha, but Yara instead of Asha is going to take some getting used to.

 

As I said on another board. Yara is just such an oddball name to jump to from Asha. Robert becomes Robin, not Vodrick or Kildor or Wambort.

Why not call her Sasha or some other close approximation that stands apart enough from Osha. People don't get confused when there is a John and a Tom in a show together, they're not going to confuse Sasha with Osha, especially if they direct the actors to enunciate the difference.

 

Maybe Yara was another name GRRM had considered for the character before he decided on Asha.

Personally, I find the idea of a character from a land of pirates named "Yara" amusing.

 

^
Probably. Yara sounds pseudo-Viking, and that's like the Iron Islands' entire shtick.

Garry Oldman is a great actor. I wouldn't necessarily want him as a dwarf, though, and he's been a dwarf before.

I'm sure Christie may give a good performance as Brienne - the show's been pretty uncanny as far as that goes - but eh.