Review Game of Thrones 1×01

Just to claify, I have not read the books, and I already, as part of GeekGirlCon, responded to the ‘women don’t read fantasy’ review in the New York Times.

Game of Thornes
Puppies Clearly this was my favorite part of Game of Thrones

Now that’s out of way, I’m not sure I actually like Games of Thrones itself. I realize there’s a lot of world-building and character introductions that had to happen in the first episode. There are a LOT of characters. And when at the end of the episode, the direwolf pup is clearly my favorite character… (Okay, Arya is awesome too!) I will probably give Game of Thrones at least one or two more episodes before deciding if I’m going to continue watching.

My reasons for dislike have nothing to do with it being fantasy, having a D&D-like nature, or just in general some other things ladies aren’t supposed to care for. The series is definitely an adult show both in the level of gore and the sexual content. Which both were, at times, bordering to places that I do not want. For the record, I do not want zombies, dead animals, rape, and racism.

So at the beginning some guards protecting the wall from the snow — I’m assuming this “the winter is coming” is a omen, not a note on seasonal changes — find some dead people. They’re all cut up, and it’s super gross. There’s a dead girl on a pike. Then when they go back to investigate more, all the dead have disappeared except the girl who’s alive again. (Later identified as a “Wight Walker” who apparently were all killed/gone a thousand years before.)

When all the dead were on the screen, I tell Jason that as long as they stayed dead, I would be okay. (I don’t like zombies.) We start making Walking Dead jokes, and then when the girl comes alive and is a killing cannibalistic beheading machine, Jason points out that Game of Thrones opened on the same note at Walking Dead. And how maybe the guy who lived — which the show surprised me by not killing as I labeled him a ‘red shirt’ early on — was Rick. When Ned cut off his head, I kind of wished it was Rick.

Anyway, back at castle Boromir — oh, there were copious Lord of the Rings jokes — Ned takes all his sons, including the youngest and the bastard, hunting. Instead of killing things, they find dead things including some dead mystical direwolf with still alive puppies. From the diary of Bran: Today was the best day ever. But it didn’t start out that way when my sister beat me in archery and then I watched my dad cut off some guy’s head. After that, it got really cool. There were dead animals and then I got a puppy. Puppies are the best.

After the puppy scene, the King comes to visit. There’s a dead dude and Cersei (Lena Headey) being hot and sad. Or worried. But with bad blonde hair, which does not suite her. She has a twin brother Jaime with whom she has an incestuous relationship with and she has a dwarf brother Tyrion, who gets drunk, is crafty, and sleeps with whores. (Also +1 for this show having a Little Person have a real plot.)

In another land, there’s this Viserys dude who claims to the be the rightful king and sexually assaults (boo!) his sister Daenerys, before marrying her off to Khal. Khal and his “savage” warrior people are one big racist turd in this story. All the rest of the people are white (Daenerys and Viserys even go so far as having bleached white hair), except the “savages” with the topless women being raped/danced with to drum music and then they start killing each other at a wedding. (Granted, I’ve been to a few weddings where murder might’ve made them more interesting.) Not to mention, while perhaps realistic that Daenerys would be married off and wouldn’t speak Khal’s language, not giving Khal or his people a voice is despicable. Then we get to watch the white girl cry as her brown husband by forced marriage rapes her. Joy.

It’s interesting because I’ve seen a lot of knee-jerk reactions to the Cersei and Jaime get caught fucking by Bran scene where Jaime shoves him off the roof. Incest and child killing. But frankly, I was so relieved it wasn’t a rape scene that the incest didn’t bother me.

Also, Bran’s fall is some kind of red herring. It just doesn’t hold up.

0 Replies to “Review Game of Thrones 1×01”

  1. By the looks of it, I think I’ll give this a miss. Not a huge fantasy fan anyway, and the content seems unnecessarily graphic, judging by the descriptions.

    Your diary excerpt made me giggle. A lot 😀

    1. Like I mentioned, I’m still planning on giving it at least 2 episodes, and then in the long run, it will probably depend on if Jason wants to keep watching it too. (Especially since I vetoed watching more Walking Dead even though he *loved* it.)

      Glad to make you giggle. I’ve had puppies on the brain lately.

      1. *nods* That makes sense. I know Lisa’s read the books, so I’ll see what her feelings are, should the show ever make it over here.

        Walking Dead is just one zombie show too far, I think. I’m just waiting for the zombie phase to die out (ha), so that we can get back to space! It’s about time for a new Star Trek show.

        1. Yes, MORE SPACE. Everything is better there. Except ice cream and soda, which the carbonation plus zero gravity makes you belch back up the liquid too.

          1. More space is good! *invites you to lead his awesome starship crew and travel among the stars*

  2. To preface, I really liked Game of Thrones premier. Yes, there was a lot of rape. But if I were you, I would give the series 2-3 more episodes. First, unless there is serious deviation from the first book — no more zombies. Second, the Dothraki plot line takes some turns that might like. Third, Arya gets even more awesome! I expect blood and gore through out, and sex with whores (oh, Tyrion!). But the political intrigue starts soon.

    1. I am planning on giving it a few more episodes before giving it the final decision. I’m glad to hear that there’s no more zombies and that the Dothraki might get actual plots and move beyond stereotypical representations of savages.

      More Arya being awesome is definitely a pull for me. And I don’t mind blood and gore and sex with whores (as long as their paid & it’s consensual) but I do think there’s a taste line. (Unless you are say Quentin Tarantino and making a point of over-the-top violence. Not just being like, ‘woo, my show’s on HBO! Boobies and blood!)

  3. I have read the books and I have mixed feelings about them. I don’t want to spoil you too much, so I’ll keep most of them to myself.

    I do love Arya, though, and Tyrion Lannister – he’s crafty and flawed and interesting. Also, don’t write off Khal and his people just yet. I don’t know how the show is planning to deal with the events of the book, but there’s a chance that you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

    1. If I end up not watching the show, I may hit you up for your mix feelings with spoilers.

      Since you’re the second person to mention that the plot with Khal and his people has a better twist to it, I’ll be sure to keep an open mind as we go forth in these episodes. (Though I did read a review which said that in the books the sex between Khal and Daenerys is more consensual.)

  4. “For the record, I do not want zombies, dead animals, rape, and racism.”

    I’m so glad it wasn’t just us . . .

    Peter Dinklage is awesome sauce – as is Sean Bean (who must have been born to rock medievalish gear), and the Arya character, and of course, puppies are awesome too. I’m all for sex and gore, but yeah, rape and violence put this one in the “really not sure about this” category.

    And to make you laugh, when the episode was over, Hubby was most bothered by the fact that dragons were mentioned twice – but never appeared in the episode. I, of course, had to point out how problematic I found it that the “savages” were people of color (shudder).

    Racism and no dragons – the two cents review from the Stuller/Wilkerson household.

    1. I’m also glad that it wasn’t just me. After I watched it & wrote this review, I pulled up my RSS reader to see who else had been reviewing it and no one mentioned the rape or the racism. (Though on the latter, people who’ve read the books — who were in the majority in the reviews I read too — said I should wait to see how Khal and his people’s story evolves.)

      Sean Bean does indeed rock the medievalish gear. I think he and Peter Dinklage’s characters should just banter and Arya throw food at them, and then I’d be much happier. 😀

      Your hubby has a good point about those dragons! Though apparently, there are three continents in this world and the one where the dragons were reported to live wasn’t on the screen last night. So he may get his wish yet.

      GoT is also on my “not really sure about this” list. I’m going to give it a couple more episodes to see if it improves. But there is only so much time I can invest.

      1. I will say, as you’ve mentioned in other responses, that I have read several reviews that argue that as the series progresses it depicts women not as victims, but as survivors, even leaders, in a male-dominated world. I found myself thinking of how emotionally hard it was for me to get through the first few episodes of Mad Men – and how that has turned out to be one of the most feminist shows on television.

        1. That’s a very good point. Oh, Mad Men.

          However, I always think that starting out with rape, no matter how awesome the women become as it progresses, is never a good note to start with. Do we really need another Red Sonja like situation? Not every woman needs to be degraded and assaulted to find the power within herself. I feel like it goes back to the WiR point of “why can’t woman heroes be awesome just because?”

  5. As for “girls don’t read sci fi” I do and I know lots of others who do, oh and I also play WOW! I have read the Game of Thrones books and I am excited about this series. Arya is my favorite character in the books and the actress they cast is off to a great start. Can’t wait for more.

    1. I *know*. After watching episode one — having never read the books myself — I was shocked of all the things she could’ve said about GoT going the whole “women aren’t into sci-fi/fantasy” was the route she went with. It’s one thing to criticize a show and another to dis a whole gender and genre. (It’d be like asking me to review a zombie movie. I probably wouldn’t like it due to the genre.) Her apology, which came out today, was really not any better.

      Arya is certainly awesome!

  6. Not knowing a single thing about the books, I knew immediately that the savage plotline was going to get more interesting than its pilot episode portrayal for the simple reason that I am familiar with Jason Momoa and wouldn’t expect him to take a completely one-dimensional role. I expect interesting things from the (Khal?) as the story evolves.

    1. I don’t know how much praise I’d give Jason Momoa since he got his acting break on Baywatch Nights? 😉 And I wouldn’t call his character on Stargate: Atlantis very well developed. (Oh, don’t look as I hide away my giant SGA issues.) I do have more hope after those who’d read the books said there’s evolution. We shall see.

      I don’t know what it is about zombies, but they just bother me. I’m not a big fan of horror, but I can stomach most anything vampire and I’m doing better with ghosts. But zombies and other creatures freak me out. (And clowns and monkeys.)

  7. The rape scenes made me cringe, but i’m not about to write the show off as this is by far the most well-done fantasy series i’ve ever laid eyes upon. I am sincerely hoping they do not rely on nonconsentual sex or use it as a crutch.

    Sean Bean is wonderful and I look forward to seeing how his character develops, along with strong women Catelyn and Arya.

    1. I’m hoping there will not be anymore rape scenes. Apparently, in the books, that scene was actually consensual so, to me, it makes zero sense why they chose rape on the TV show.

      Bean is really made for this type of role. Yes, I have hopes for good development for both Catelyn and Arya. (Though I think if we’re going to throw in some sex that a good scene between Ned and Catelyn was missing. I love happily married power couples in non-sitcoms or family-dramas.)

  8. I sometimes read your reviews on your comic book site. As a male reader, I am always curious as to how female fans review books I read and what they like/dislike. Its always great to see more female fans enjoying comic books in particular superhero comics and I believe female fans offer a unique perspective we menfolk lack. Anyway it led me to your GOT review.

    It was interesting reading your review as someone who hasn’t read the books. I am an ardent fan of the books and was at first apprehensive about a live action adaptation because they rarely succeed in capturing the feel and nature of the source material. Having seen the first episode, I would say it was as close to the books someone could come given the constraints of the medium. Having said that the first episode did a poor job of explaining the nature and history behind the seven kingdoms and the continent of westeros or the various houses. No one can accuse GRRM of not writing multidimensional characters male or female. Some of the transformations of the female characters over the course of 4 books is something rarely seen in fantasy literature.

    I would suggest that if you have the time then read the 4 books. The fifth (which has taken Martin a long time to write and it still isn’t finished) comes out in July. There are few fantasy book series like the “A Song of Ice and Fire” . I am glad that HBO will bring new readers to the books. Maybe that will get Martin to crank them out faster.
    I also fear that we might never see seven or more seasons to cover the seven planned books because of the enormous expense of the production .Deadwood and Rome never got satisfying conclusions and I doubt this will.

    1. I’m glad that you’ve been enjoying my reviews.

      I think that it’s actually harder to explain worlds in TV — even when you have the visual medium — than in books. You can’t really have characters spouting that much exposition without losing a lot of your audience. But it would be nice to have a bit of explanation about how fantasy the world truly is. I mean, we don’t need to know all the secrets, but some hints like “normal people except to be eaten by dragons if they venture out of the kingdom” would’ve been nice.

      I also don’t imagine that the show will last long enough to play out the entire saga. (If GRRM finishes them… Which is actually one reason I’ve hesitated in picking them up, as they’ve been rec’d to me long before the show as announced.) Especially since child actors, who seem very important to the plot, have that whole growing up at a speed that’s either slower or faster than your plot needs.

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