Current Events > Almost done with reading A Game of Thrones (first book)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Having recently rewatched the show, the book hasn't been too amazing so far, but only because I think the first season did an excellent job adapting from the source material. There hasn't been much new that I've learned from reading the books. In fact, the books seem almost tame in a way, given that HBO included tons of sex scenes in the earlier seasons. Plus I'm sad that Joffrey doesn't appear all too much in the book, he's my favorite character lol.

I did like the description of Catelyn going her way up the Eyrie. It really highlighted how it's "impregnable." And how Tyrion was close to losing his mind on the sloped sky dungeon.

Actually, there was one passage I really enjoyed. It was Dany recounting how she only learned about her family's history via her brother. It brought a touch of sympathy to a character I went in hating from his show portrayal. Dany really owes a lot to her brother, in a way.
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Yeah the first one took a little effort to get through, just because it was so similar. It is still great, and I had the same reactions you did. I liked getting in Dany's head and seeing how her worldview worked.

And yes, the ascent to the Eyrie was one of my favorite things that didn't make it into the show. I also like their description of the moon door better, it is almost more mundane, and it is less of a central point for the room. But there is a nice feeling of having an actual door that just opens out into the air, so you could just open it and see you are definitely in the sky, seeing other mountains below you, especially when someone is forced to take a step through it.

In the show you wouldn't even be able to see the moon through the moon door. The famous scene later on in the show involving someone going through the door also feels a lot better in the books. There is a really cool piece of fan art someone made of that moment that really made me appreciate it.
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Im also almost done reading A Game of Thrones for the first time. Ive been enjoying it a lot - season 1 has always been my favorite (or season 4, depending on the day) and its nice to experience it again. Im constantly visualizing the characters as the actors because they did such a great job.

Im at the part after Ned is captured and Jon first encounters a wight. My next chapter is Bran so Im not too eager to go back.
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au_gold posted...

Im also almost done reading A Game of Thrones for the first time. Ive been enjoying it a lot - season 1 has always been my favorite (or season 4, depending on the day) and its nice to experience it again. Im constantly visualizing the characters as the actors because they did such a great job.

Im at the part after Ned is captured and Jon first encounters a wight. My next chapter is Bran so Im not too eager to go back.

I don't have the same issue most people do who read after they watched. Because the character descriptions are so different mostly, I don't usually picture the actors as I read. Joffrey is one of the only exceptions, and actually Jaime too for the most part. I just can't picture the Lannisters with curly hair. But I do picture them a bit younger like in the books, especially Cersei. I don't mean to be mean to Lena Headey, because she is definitely pretty, but Cersei is supposed to be more. I picture her super adorable, and even meaner.

And I always picture Tyrion with the extra ugliness, and a higher more imp like voice. And Tywin I picture as way bigger, like a slightly more dad bod with extra hair version of the Armstrong dude from FMA. With the golden hair and mutton chops to make him look like a lion. I love Dinklage and Dance(the superior DnD of the show.) for their acting ability, but their appearance doesn't fit for the book versions at all.

And Robb is supposed to be more buff too, I picture him like a nice version of a football jock. Same with Renly, he is supposed to be a big buff dude who looks like a younger Bobby B. And actually I do kind of picture Mark Addy as king Bob, except taller with broader shoulders.
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Season 1 being so close to the books is the reason why it's so good. My favorite book is A Storm of Swords. Undoubtedly, the "peak" of the book series, and is responsible for being the primary source for seasons 3 and 4.
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Itachi157 posted...

I remember mentally pronouncing Jaime as "jaym" when I first read it way before the show came out. Just because of how it was spelled, and I figured there was no way it was supposed to be "high-meh" like the Spanish pronunciation.

Tar-GAR-e-on

I mispronounced a lot of names when I first read it, but next to no one I knew read them back then to correct me
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Itachi157 posted...

I remember mentally pronouncing Jaime as "jaym" when I first read it way before the show came out. Just because of how it was spelled, and I figured there was no way it was supposed to be "high-meh" like the Spanish pronunciation.

There were a few words I got stuck on that had to look up; Aurochs and Mummer to be specific. Damn, just use 'cow' and 'actor'.
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008Zulu posted...

Itachi157 posted...

I remember mentally pronouncing Jaime as "jaym" when I first read it way before the show came out. Just because of how it was spelled, and I figured there was no way it was supposed to be "high-meh" like the Spanish pronunciation.

There were a few words I got stuck on that had to look up; Aurochs and Mummer to be specific. Damn, just use 'cow' and 'actor'.

I remember looking up mummers farce a few times lol
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008Zulu posted...

Itachi157 posted...

I remember mentally pronouncing Jaime as "jaym" when I first read it way before the show came out. Just because of how it was spelled, and I figured there was no way it was supposed to be "high-meh" like the Spanish pronunciation.

There were a few words I got stuck on that had to look up; Aurochs and Mummer to be specific. Damn, just use 'cow' and 'actor'.

Context clues. It's not hard to figure out what a mummer is just reading it. But yeah I wasn't one hundred percent on what an Auroch was, but I could tell it was some type of bull thing.
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It's crazy that Robb is only 15. Catelyn is crazy for leading him into a war at that age.
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parabola_master posted...

It's crazy that Robb is only 15. Catelyn is crazy for leading him into a war at that age.

Just remember that from A Game of Thrones to the end of A Dance with Dragons is only 3 years

So when you get into the next-level shit, remember the ages, please
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parabola_master posted...

It's crazy that Robb is only 15. Catelyn is crazy for leading him into a war at that age.

I don't remember Catelyn leading him anywhere though.
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Aging the characters up was definitely one of the best choices the show made. I just don't buy that all those things in the series were done and said by 15-year-olds.
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Basically when D&D ran out of source material that's when the show got worse. The further they got into the seasons the more stupid.

winged_weltall posted...

Basically when D&D ran out of source material that's when the show got worse. The further they got into the seasons the more stupid.

Nah it got worse before the ran out. They pretty much skipped book 4 and 5. The parts they did keep weren't great. I guess if you liked season 5 maybe you don't agree, but all the seasons after 4 weren't very good imo. Even the end of season 4 fucked up Tyrion's motivation and left him bumbling around with no purpose for the rest of the show.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Aging the characters up was definitely one of the best choices the show made. I just don't buy that all those things in the series were done and said by 15-year-olds.

Showing a teenager being railed by a clearly older man could also have been problematic.
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MrNintendo1213 posted...

au_gold posted...

Im also almost done reading A Game of Thrones for the first time. Ive been enjoying it a lot - season 1 has always been my favorite (or season 4, depending on the day) and its nice to experience it again. Im constantly visualizing the characters as the actors because they did such a great job.

Im at the part after Ned is captured and Jon first encounters a wight. My next chapter is Bran so Im not too eager to go back.

I don't have the same issue most people do who read after they watched. Because the character descriptions are so different mostly, I don't usually picture the actors as I read. Joffrey is one of the only exceptions, and actually Jaime too for the most part. I just can't picture the Lannisters with curly hair. But I do picture them a bit younger like in the books, especially Cersei. I don't mean to be mean to Lena Headey, because she is definitely pretty, but Cersei is supposed to be more. I picture her super adorable, and even meaner.

And I always picture Tyrion with the extra ugliness, and a higher more imp like voice. And Tywin I picture as way bigger, like a slightly more dad bod with extra hair version of the Armstrong dude from FMA. With the golden hair and mutton chops to make him look like a lion. I love Dinklage and Dance(the superior DnD of the show.) for their acting ability, but their appearance doesn't fit for the book versions at all.

And Robb is supposed to be more buff too, I picture him like a nice version of a football jock. Same with Renly, he is supposed to be a big buff dude who looks like a younger Bobby B. And actually I do kind of picture Mark Addy as king Bob, except taller with broader shoulders.

My sentiments exactly, especially concerning Cersei; as you said, not taking anything away from the lovely Lena Headey, but I always pictured Cersei having almost elfin-like beauty and really big, intense crazy-eyes. I also didn't get a good mental picture of book-Renly until my second readthrough and really paid attention to the descriptives. I really liked how he was basically a non-brutish version of Robert.
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Bad_Mojo posted...

parabola_master posted...

It's crazy that Robb is only 15. Catelyn is crazy for leading him into a war at that age.

Just remember that from A Game of Thrones to the end of A Dance with Dragons is only 3 years

So when you get into the next-level shit, remember the ages, please

I'm thinking about the part when Catelyn is asking Robb to show her how he would lead an attack against Casterly Rock/Tywin. He prepares his plan that involves the Twins during this time. I gues she's not leading him but she's checking to see if he's competent enough for the wars to follow, and he seems eager to impress her.
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Just finished the Daenerys chapter where Mirri Maz Duur is in the tent with Khal Drogo, trying to revive him.

Wow. It was incredible. And Daenery's description of seeing shadows in the tent is terrifying.

I'm trying to remember this scene from the show and if I recall correctly, I got the impression that Dany's son dies because Mirri had planned to take his life ("only death can pay for life"). Here, however, it seems that the son will die only because Dany was brought back into the tent as she tries and fails to plead otherwise. Or is it the case that the baby thrashing around in her belly is a result of the blood magic?

Either way, it's so tragic for her. She literally alone in the world, with maybe one trusted helper (Jorah) and surrounded by people would would turn on her after her husband dies.
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I'm pretty sure the book intends that her son is also the sacrifice she's using.
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Loved the backstory of the Children and the First Men living peacefully and carving the faces on then trees until the Andals came. This book has much amazing lore lol I love it

I wonder thought why the books front and back flap have a map of Westeros but not of Essos. I guess Essos isnt too important now since Dany hasnt traveled too much but it would be nice to have that map on the book as well (I know I can look at a map online but it feels like cheating if GRRM didnt include it yet)
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Yeah, the lore is so much better than the show, and you haven't seen anything yet
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parabola_master posted...

I wonder thought why the books front and back flap have a map of Westeros but not of Essos. I guess Essos isnt too important now since Dany hasnt traveled too much but it would be nice to have that map on the book as well (I know I can look at a map online but it feels like cheating if GRRM didnt include it yet)

Dany having traveled so little is probably why. She basically goes east a lot over to the Dothraki city, then south a bit to Lhazar.
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MrNintendo1213 posted...

au_gold posted...

Im also almost done reading A Game of Thrones for the first time. Ive been enjoying it a lot - season 1 has always been my favorite (or season 4, depending on the day) and its nice to experience it again. Im constantly visualizing the characters as the actors because they did such a great job.

Im at the part after Ned is captured and Jon first encounters a wight. My next chapter is Bran so Im not too eager to go back.

I don't have the same issue most people do who read after they watched. Because the character descriptions are so different mostly, I don't usually picture the actors as I read. Joffrey is one of the only exceptions, and actually Jaime too for the most part. I just can't picture the Lannisters with curly hair. But I do picture them a bit younger like in the books, especially Cersei. I don't mean to be mean to Lena Headey, because she is definitely pretty, but Cersei is supposed to be more. I picture her super adorable, and even meaner.

And I always picture Tyrion with the extra ugliness, and a higher more imp like voice. And Tywin I picture as way bigger, like a slightly more dad bod with extra hair version of the Armstrong dude from FMA. With the golden hair and mutton chops to make him look like a lion. I love Dinklage and Dance(the superior DnD of the show.) for their acting ability, but their appearance doesn't fit for the book versions at all.

And Robb is supposed to be more buff too, I picture him like a nice version of a football jock. Same with Renly, he is supposed to be a big buff dude who looks like a younger Bobby B. And actually I do kind of picture Mark Addy as king Bob, except taller with broader shoulders.

The show seemed to be afraid to make Tyrion and Brienne truly ugly. In the books Tyrion is a fucking monster (physically), and then he gets his nose cut off.
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