Okay, so background. I've never watched Game of Thrones before. Not ever. Nor read the books. I know a very little bit about this series and I don't generally watch TV, so I was never that interested. But the rest of the Trials staff finally talked me into checking it out and Thunder provided me with the entire series up to the end of season 6. And after watching the first episode, I figured, hey, why not talk about each episode as I watch in a journal and give my thoughts and any critique I may have. These will be blind, barring the first episode, so please no spoilers. I'll undoubtedly be wrong when making predictions, but that's half the fun. So before we start episode 1, here's what I know going in.
Sean Bean dies in this series, which....is basically saying Sean Bean is in this series.
Peter Dinklage is in this series and he's awesome.
There's a character named Hodor and he's both memetic and important.
There's a character name John Snow and he knows nothing.
So let's get into it, shall we.
So we start of with a trio of men on horses riding through a tunnel into a forest that looks really cold, but neither the men nor the horses seem to bothered, so I guess it's supposed to be salt instead of snow. The trio split up and one of them stumbles across some brutally dismembered corpses laid out in a pattern that looks kinda like an eye, which immediately tells me I've been spending too much time in Middle Earth, because my mind goes instantly to Sauron. Ah well.
We cut to the one guy having rejoined the rest of the trio, who have a talk about wildlings and the penalty for desertion, which doesn't set the Kingdom up as a very forgiving place. Then the trio head back to the dead men who seem to have gone on walkabout. Um....guys? Leave, now. But they don't and the leader gets killed by...something. I'm not entirely sure what. Then one of the soldiers stumbles across one of the corpses from earlier, who is now looking quite active for a dead girl. Some kind of Winter Wright, then? Anyway, the second guy dies and we cut to what is the admittedly the best opening to a TV show I've seen that wasn't for a 90's cartoon or Remington Steele. Seriously, I want a map like that, with pop up models of the cities.
We then cut to less snowy salty climates that somehow look colder than the forest from the beginning and we see that the third guy somehow got away. Guess he's a deserter now, because a bunch of spear-wielding guys on horseback encircling and hold him at spear point. Then we cut to the awesomely named Winterfell and meet the Starks. I will admit to cheating here and cutting to IMDB so I could look up how to spell this lots names and I'm not sure whether I'm more relieved or disappointed that none of them are named Howard or Anthony, but then again this isn't Wild ARMs. (I would love to explain that reference, but then this tangent would likely be as long as the entire Rynmere lore page, so instead I'll provide you with a link and say that if you like RPG's or are a student of game design and have access to the 2nd or 3rd games, you owe it to yourself to give them a look. You will not be disappointed.)
We see the Starks practicing archery and knitting, and the two older boys being older brothers and teasing their little brother, and Boromir Stark being a good dad and telling them to knock it off. I can already guess I'm gonna like this guy, it's a shame he's more doomed Freya Renault in a popularity contest. Then a man with some....seriously weird facial hair shows up and informs Boromir, whose actual name appears to be, far less impressively, Ned, that they caught the deserter. Boromir rounds up his boys and go check it out.
The deserter asks Boromir to send word of his death to his family, or at least I think that's what his mumbling adds up to, and Boromir draws an impressively sized sword and proclaims his sentence, referring to himself as the even lamer Eddard in the process, then lops off his head. At least it wasn't long and drawn out, I suppose. He then explains to his young son Bran why he had to do what he did, and the reason given, that he who proclaims the sentence must carry it out, is actually a pretty neat idea. We also learn the snow monsters from the beginning are called White Walkers and haven't been seen for thousands of years, so of course, they're back with a vengeance.
We then cut to a desiccated deer corpse and I notice we're only a quarter of the way through this. I might need to find a way to make these journals shorter. We then find out that this deer had a mutual kill with a substantially sized Dire Wolf. They find some living dire wolf puppies and Boromir immediately tries to put himself on the shit list by deciding to kill them before they reach adulthood. He is saved from this by John Snow, who immediately proves one of my facts wrong by proving that he does know something. He mentions that the symbol of House Stark is a dire wolf and there are five dire wolf pups, one for each of the Stark Children. He says their a sign from the gods and that each Stark should be given a pup.
Now, I really like this proclamation from Snow. See, my favorite form of Fantasy is Heroic Fantasy, the swords and sorcery type. Standing Trials is Heroic Fantasy with elements of High Fantasy and it's one of the reasons I was so drawn to it back when I was recruited. Game of Thrones so far seems to be Low Fantasy, very few magical elements, though I may be jumping the gun, but this proclamation that the Stark children are destined to have the wolves feels very Heroic Fantasy to me. It also leads to a pretty awesome follow up.
Boromir states that his children will have to be responsible pet owners, but otherwise agrees and the pups are gathered. Bran asks why Snow, who is apparently Boromir's son, doesn't get a pup, and Snow submits his name for badass of the season by proclaiming, without being self-conscience about it and in front of all the people who bare the name he isn't allowed to, that he isn't a Stark. The GoT gods agree with me that doing this takes both guts and surety in yourself and the whine of a sixth, snow white pup is heard. I like that if it is the GoT gods handing out dire wolf pups, Snow's willingness to admit that he isn't a Stark is what earns him the right to the Stark familiar. I also like that while his half-brothers pick on him about his wolf being the runt, they don't object to Snow having a wolf like the rest of them. Very good of them, Boromir seems to raise his kids right.
We then cut to King's Landing where there seems to a funeral of some sort on and a pair of blonde people, who appear to be siblings, talk about some stuff that didn't make much sense. This is largely because, much like the deserter, they mumble. I might need to find a version of this with some subtitles. Gist of it though seems to be that someone might have murdered the dead guy. Anyway, back to Winterfell.
A raven arrives carrying a message and Boromir's wife takes it to Boromir, who is brooding by a pond. They reassure each other about their troubles and she informs Boromir that the King and Queen and some others are coming to Winterfell. Boromir responds that there can be only one thing the King wants and the Starks ready themselves for their guests. We cut to the King's party arriving and Bran does some very impressive hardcore parkour to tell his family, though his mom scolds him for his notion that really high walls are better to climb than stairs.
There is a....really long sequence where the King's party rides in and he and Boromir greet each other, showing that they're old friends. We also learn that the siblings from earlier are known as the Lannisters, and I will never be able to take that name seriously. It makes me think of the word banister and I just can't after that. Anyway, Boromir and the King go down to the crypt and talk about the dead man, and the King says he would name Boromir the Hand of the King. Boromir says he's is not worthy, but the King calls Shenanigans and they mention that King was meant to be wed to Boromir's sister and King suggests his son marry Boromir's daughter.
We then cut to Peter Dinklage, who is apparently another Lannister, getting it on with a whore. Very well, but purpose does this serve? That is answered when his brother barges in on them. There's some snark and brotherly banter, during which is revealed that the Lannisters apparently don't think highly of the Starks, and then Jaime sics four more whores on Tyrion and leaves the door open because he was apparently born in a barn. RUDE.
Another cut later and we see Boromir and King(No matter where I look in this episode, I never catch this dudes name, mourning Boromir's sister, during which Boromir mentions that all the Tragaryen, I think it's spelled, are gone. King replies that not all of them are and we have another cut, this time to some bleach-haired folks I assume are the Tragaryens. We meet Danaerys and Viserys, who are an interesting pair. Viserys seems obsessed with reclaiming the throne, while Dana seems sad. We soon learn why as we are introduced to the Dothraki, who seem singularly unpleasant and it appears she's to be the Dothraki's Queen.
Dana, however, doesn't want to be traded for a Dothraki army and says so after they leave. Viserys puts his name in for jerkass of the season by telling Dana that he'd let all the Dothraki and their horses have a go at her for his throne. Well then. FUCK YOU, BUDDY. Seriously, I barely know the guy and I'm already going to enjoy it when he dies.
Back in Winterfell, we find that Sansa Stark wants to marry the Prince, who hasn't even had a line yet, and begs Momma Stark (another character whose name I never quite catch) to make it happen. We then cut to a party where much revelry is being had, but it's a short scene and we go to Snow being lonely because apparently the queen would be pissy about the presence of a bastard. Uncle Benjen Stark shows up and they talk about Snow joining the Wall, whatever that means, but Benjen is leery about his acceptance and ditches Snow to go the party.
However, Tyrion shows up and gives Snow some encouragement, advising him not to let anyone use his status against him. I rather like Tyrion so far, I can see why everyone else seems too. We return to the party and Benjen and Boromir discuss the significance of the attack at the beginning and the presence of the dire wolf pups, but the revelry distracts them before they get very far. Queen Cirsei and Momma Stark discuss the grimmness of the north and Sansa shows up only for Cirsei to get...rather inappropriately personal. Seriously, so far Tyrion is the only Lannister I actually like.
We then cut to some banter between Jaime and Boromir and Jaime attempts to be intimidating. Boromir is unimpressed and fires back a jab about not participating in tournaments because he doesn't like to reveal his hand, at which point Jaime quits the field. Very well done, Mister Stark. There's some more revelry, then Boromir and Momma Stark discuss the possible promotion King offered Boromir. Then a message from Momma Stark's sister shows up and reveals that the dead guy in King's Landing, John somebody, was murdered by the Lannisters.
Knew I didn't like that lot. This becomes another reason for Boromir to take the promotion, so he can protect his buddy from those dastardly Lannisters. We then cut to the Tragaryens, who are attending Dana's wedding. During the celebration, a dude gets killed and apparently, less than three deaths makes for a dull ceremony. Um...robust culture. In all honesty, this made me want to have a place in Standing Trials where duels to the death are standard entertainment at weddings. Scalvoris, maybe?
We then meet the bad guy from Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, and he gives Dana books, which I assume will be important. Dana is then given a much more interesting gift, dragon eggs that have been turned to stone by age. If those don't hatch at some point, I will be very disappointed in this story. We then have the rather unsettling and depressing lead up to the consummation of Dana's marriage.
After that, we return to Winterfell, where a hunting party is underway and we find out that Boromir accepted the promotion. They head out boar hunting and Bran goes to practice for the Assassin's Creed auditions. But at the top of he runs into Jaime and Cirsei being....far too intimate for siblings. Jaime doesn't seem bothered, but Cirsei freaks out. In deference to her wishes, he puts in his name for jerkass of the season by pushing Bran off the building and we cut to the credits.
In the end, the first episode wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite enough for me to see what all the fuss was about. I'm gonna give it at least a few more episodes though. It did have some really good moments, like the entire bit where they found the wolves, and I do hope it gets better. Anyway, the standings!
Badass of the season: John Snow leads at 5 points!
Jerkass of the season: Viserys Tragaryen leads at 20 points!
Jaime Lannister holds second at 10 points!
Most awesome scene of the season: No entries.
Most depressing scene of the season: Also no entries.
A final note about my referring to Sean Bean's character as Boromir through this whole episode. Partly it's because Boromir's one of my favorite literary characters ever. But mostly it's because I'm honestly not sure if this character's name is Ned or Eddard. They call him both. Anyway, see ya'll in the next entry!
Basilisk's GoT Journal
For Entertainment
This section is for players to post about things unrelated to the Standing Trials roleplay. You may talk about anything from world issues, to your personal life, to funny things you found on the internet. You are free to use this forum to express yourself as a player and not as your actual character. You can also post in other players journals so long as they give you permission to. Please remember not to post anything relating to pornography or anything with extensive use of profanity.
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