Media Thoughts

[brigdh]

Background notes: I've read all the books, but only once about two years ago, so I have a tendency to forget the names of characters or the details of the plot. On the other hand, I'm certainly familiar with all the major points.

So far, I (and everyone else) am totally loving Tyrion. I love his actor, I love his plot, I love his dialogue, I love everything. I also am adoring Jaime, which is surprising, because I was mostly meh about him in the books. But the actor is so perfectly smarmy that I'm falling for the character.

Speaking of, OMG JOFFREY IS SO EXACTLY RIGHT. How is he such an absolutely ur-example of a spoiled brat? I DON'T KNOW BUT I AM IN AWE.

I'm kinda waiting to see more of the Dany storyline. She is my favorite character in the books, and so far I have found the adaptation changes to mostly be for the worse. But I am willing to watch a few more episodes before making up my mind.

Other random notes: Arya is love, Jon's little teenage-boy-chin-wisp is perfect, the dragon eggs look super dumb and fake, the music for the credit sequence is terrible, I wish they'd dyed King Robert's hair black, I really hope the show treats Varys right, because that could easily go wrong.

Kuroshitsuji, no spoilers
So far I've read the first volume of the manga and watched the first three episodes of the anime in order to see what everyone's talking about. I'm liking Ciel and Sebastian, but the other servants are really annoying. Do they ever serve a purpose beyond comic relief? There's a lot of potential here, though it hasn't grabbed me yet. But I'm interested enough to keep watching.

Comments

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I'm planning a reread of the books in June, so I'll have remembered what happened when the new book comes out in July.

I agree, Tyrion is great. Is it the music for the opening credits you don't like? I really like it. (And the opening sequence, for that matter.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yeah, I'll probably do a reread sometime soon, but I haven't yet gotten around to it.

Yeah, the opening credits. I really like the visuals of the opening sequence, but I find the music to be very much forgettable, generic medieval-fantasy music. It may be that I just have high expectations, since HBO shows tend to have amazing opening sequences (True Blood, Rome, Carnivale, and Six Feet Under all had fantastic openings, for example).

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

As a person who really doesn't know music, I'm ready to believe that the music for the Game of Thrones opening credits is awful -- but at the same time, I'd be curious to know why. It's a nasty earworm that I wish wouldn't take up residence in my neural pathways the way it does, but that's my only complaint about it. And I've just been going on about how purely gorgeous I find those opening credits themselves.

(Sadly for me, I am much less in love with the show itself. Tyrion is charming, and it's gratifying to see Dany getting to be dangerous instead of pushed around; but generally I'm finding everybody sort of stereotypical and obvious, and unless either Tyrion or Dany is onscreen I find myself wandering off from it. But I'll probably keep semi-watching anyway, because those little clockwork towers in the credits are pure love.)

Weirdly enough, the annoying Kuroshitsuji house staff actually do have a reason for being completely incompetent at their ostensible jobs. Their backstory arrives way late in the anime, and only makes sense in the context of the kind of "Victorian England" where Queen Victoria might show up on horseback, without much of an escort, and wearing steampunk glacier-climbing goggles, but once you get past all that, yeah, there's a reason they are the way they are. The comic relief is only a byproduct.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

But I'll probably keep semi-watching anyway, because those little clockwork towers in the credits are pure love.

Yes! Little clockwork Westeros.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

On reflection, I wonder whether this isn't a case of the opening-credit sequence being so good that it turns like a slippery sword-hilt and does unintended damage to the show itself. It's a bit like the opening credits for Carnivale that way: the sequence is so breathtaking that there's nowhere to go from there, and anything short of brilliance is going to be a letdown.

Looking back, and as somebody who never read the books, I realize now that I was a lot more impressed with the first seven minutes of the show, before those credits ran, than I was with anything that happened afterward -- or with those first seven minutes when I watched them again. It looked terrific, that is, until I expected it to be as good as the clockwork trees and towers and cathedrals, and the flashes of metalwork on the swords. Which is totally unfair, because how could it be?

[airspaniel.livejournal.com]

Peter Dinklage is freaking amazing as Tyrion, and I really really love everything about the character. Jaime's actor (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is the whole reason I even started watching this in the first place. Man is made of smarm. Gorgeous, gorgeous smarm. ^_^

Also, my aunt used to have a random coffee table decoration that looked exactly like those dragon eggs. I laugh every time I see them.

[call-me-ishmael.livejournal.com]

Haha, my flatmate and I were talking about how Joffrey is perfect--we instantly wanted to punch him in the face.

Although I miss the nuances in the book, I'm still really enjoying the show. Tyrion is forever <33333 Jaime, Jon and Arya are also <3. Dany I'm glad is coming into her own but something feels off.

I hate remembering what happens to people, it makes me sad.

Didn't both Ned and Robert have black hair? It's been a while since I've read them as well so I don't remember.