First REAL trailer for HBO's A Game of Thrones

[Hyperspace05]

I've never read the books... But this trailer makes it look like a historical drama (with fictional elements of course) - like "The Tudors" for example, not the fantasy epic I was expecting from this thread.

So what is it? A bit of both?

 

[Shurik]

I've never read the books... But this trailer makes it look like a historical drama (with fictional elements of course) - like "The Tudors" for example, not the fantasy epic I was expecting from this thread.

So what is it? A bit of both?

For most part it does feel like an historical drama, in what more or less looks like 13-14 century Europe. The magical elements are present but they are on background for the most part. There's more of them as the series progress.

 

[Caliburn24]

The first three books are basically the War of the Roses redone. Magic is very rare, very slight and most of the time can be explained away as something else. Martin often leaves things ambigious which makes it all so much fun to argue and theorize about.

There two major exceptions(Danaerys and the stuff at the Wall), both of which will play a bigger role in the books yet to be written, I assume.

But for at least the first couple seasons of the HBO show it'll be light on magic and many sorts of fantasy elements.

 

[scnj]

Re: First REAL trailer for HBO's A Game of Throne

As great as the series of books looks - it's universally praised by everyone at Amazon - I'm not really into getting heavily into a wonderful story, only to have to wait 5 years to finish it. Too many other great stories out there that have a conclusion I think..........

Five years? If only...

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Re: First REAL trailer for HBO's A Game of Throne

I've already forgotten 70% of what happens and all the details of the characters. The delays just killed my interest in the series. Also the books, while excellent, have a very "24" vibe to them. Its amazing at the beginning, but after a certain amount of time, the constant twists and 'oh shit' moments and deaths just pile up a little too much, and the story starts losing any meaning it may have had.

 

[Scout101]

Yeah, I can see that. An occasional death as a plot twist is fun, but they're pretty brutal about it, and after a while, you've kinda lost pretty much everyone you spent time focusing on. And Arya is wandering the countryside Kim Bauer style at this point...

 

[Venardhi]

For the sake of the folks coming to the show with fresh eyes, can we keep the spoilers in tags please?

 

[Skywalker]

Brand new ten minute behind the scenes featurette.

Everything looks so fantastic. Sean Bean is perfect as Ned Stark.

 

[JD]

Sweet, I'll certainly be checking this out first chance I get. Oh, and as soon I finish a couple of the other books I'm reading I'm going to be restarting the AGT book.
EDIT: I just watched it, and it looks better and better the more I see.

 

[auntiehill]

I think I'll check this out. Sean Bean just gets more cool and better looking with age.

 

[Skywalker]

I have to admit I was a little skeptical about Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, but I really liked the bits of footage we saw of him in this. Jaime's one of the books' best characters (and I can't believe I'm saying that, given how much I disliked him in AGOT ), so hopefully that translates to the show as well.

 

[Venardhi]

I completely disagree with Bean being perfect for Ned. I like Bean a lot, so I'm okay with it, but Ned is described a lot more like the guy they have playing Benjen.

Doesn't look like they changed much from the draft of the script I read a couple years ago. Still have that awful line from Ned in response to Jaime's taunting. So out of character. Hopefully they changed Benjen's line that comes soon after, it is even worse.

On the plus side, it looks like we are definitely going to see some flashbacks. You can see

Spoiler: his brother. . .

Brandon Stark being held by a noose while he struggles to save his father from being burned alive by Aerys.

 

[Skywalker]

Slightly longer video with a few more bits not seen in the original video.

 

[label]

This really sucks. The preview looks great, the story sounds awesome and I really want to watch this. However, I won't do that and spoil the books and I'm not going to read the books until he finishes the series (or is within a year or so of completing it).

 

[Evil Twin]

Dude, seriously, read them. Don't let that stop you. They're so freakin' good that the series being incomplete at this point is irrelevant. You're missing out big time if you wait.

 

[Venardhi]

The first three make a nice trilogy anyways, albeit one without a definitive ending.

 

[label]

The first three make a nice trilogy anyways, albeit one without a definitive ending.

After doing a bunch of reading about Martin and the history behind these novels, I'm considering reading the first 3 and stopping there. Apparently the fourth one sucks by almost all accounts and he's 5 years late releasing the fifth book. Also sounds (I have no idea personally, just going on what I read) that the writer is being a real douche about getting the books done and has really gotten a big head about this stuff.

Stephen King with his Dark Tower series wrote the first four books over many years and many of his fans were in the same boat as Martin's. Course, then King got in an accident, listened to the plea from his readers (or himself.......who knows) and finished the last 3 relatively quickly.

Personally, I don't think the last 3 were nearly as strong as the first 4 but thats what you get when you hurry the books. Personally I wished he would have taken just a little bit longer and really put the finishing touches on the book but I am glad he's finished too.

 

[Caliburn24]

Well, one of the fears with Martin is that he is as one blogger put it a man of "trenchermanly girth", and will wind up dying before he completes the series.

And while having another author finish the series might work for The Wheel of Time, it would be harder to do for a Song of Ice and Fire imo.

But as all of Martin's diehard fans know, the only true way to get him to hurry up and finish the series would be to cancel American football, he seems to spend a great deal of time watching and writing about it.

 

[sidious618]

Regarding the fourth book, I've not heard any universal claim of it being disliked. I loved it.

 

[Evil Twin]

Well, the biggest problem with A Feast for Crows is that only covers about half the "chapter" characters. It's been literally ten years now (since A Storm of Swords) since we've seen what the other half are up to.

As I once said to a fellow reader, A Dance with Dragons better damn well be the Second Coming for all the time it's taken to write.