She is a completely different person. In the books she is Jeyne Westerling, and her family are bannermen of the Lannisters. They meet when Robb takes her castle and he takes an arrow in the siege. She nurses him back to health and is there to "comfort" him in bed when he gets the news that Rickon and Bran have been killed by Theon. After sleeping with her he marries her the next day to uphold her honor. In the show she is Talisa, a foreigner nurse who Robb marries just because he wants to. I thought the premiere was pretty good despite the changes. Most of the changes that I disliked were carry overs from past seasons like Littlefinger scheming in public and in person with Sansa when Varys has spies every where, or understandable budget restrictions like cutting the attack of the white walkers on the fist of the first men. I do think the fade to black attack could have been explained a bit better though as to what happened since Sam was surrounded and unexplainably survived at the end of last season, but then is running thru the snow and attacked. It also seems like that is the first time Sam was reunited with any of the Night's Watch since last season when he got seperated, so I don't know why Mormont would have expected him to send out the ravens if he was no where near them when the attack happened. I also wasn't clear on what happened at Harrenhal. It looked like northmen dead inside the castle, but I didn't really follow how they got there or what happened. Maybe I missed a battle flash forward, but it seemed like they were getting ready to siege the castle and then found it abandoned with dead northmen inside. Most of the rest of the episode was really good though. The writing for Jon's story still isn't great, but better than last year so far. It was cool to see a Giant. Tyrion and Tywin was great. Tyrion was great in general. Meeting the Unsullied was a great adaptation of the bargaining from the book. Davos parts were done adaptations. I was suprised that they revealed Barristan's identity right away, but I can understand the reasoning that it wouldn't be the same sort of surprise since the viewers would know for sure ahead of time. That being said, it doesn't necessarily mean Dany needed to know right away. They also cut the part about who sent Selmy and Strong Belwas, at least so far, Spoiler Illyrio sent them along with ships that were supposed to take Dany back to his estate. It's the goods on those ships that were used to negotiate for the Unsullied, but since the show made Xaro's vault empty, it's unclear how Dany could afford 8,000 unsullied. I know they plundered Xaro's house for gold and jewels, but Jorah made it sound like that was going to be enough for a small ship, which they purchased/hired to get to Astapor. I suppose they will make the value of the dragon's a bigger part of the negotiation. Still overall I thought it was better than most of last season's episodes outside of Blackwater and there were some amazing visuals including the dragons.
The hour did go quickly and was mostly a set-up/condensing material...wasn't blown away but am looking forward to next week
Last season's opening episode was pretty similar so I was kind of expecting it but it's still the quickest hour me and the wife watch, we both keep checking the clock to see how much time is left and are let down when they end early.
Fixed. You're right. My wife and I are the same. Although I think this first episode used up most of the hour? But there's some cheating: Minus 1 minute of recap, 2 minutes of intro [cool but sad smoking image of Winterfell], and 30 seconds of "next week on GoT"). I wish they'd give each episode 75 minutes. Screw up their programming, but hell with it; most of the book and the show are conversations, but if they're anything like Tyrion/Tywin's "I need your support"/"I hate your guts" scenes, I'll take'em. The show has the excuse of "this is in the budget, that isn't; talking scenes = cheap, White Walkers and giants = cha ching$$!".
Enjoyed it it. The Tyrion/Tywin scene was wince inducing, but very well done. Loved seeing the giant. I kind of feel like they are just throwing the direwolves in at random times now because they are supposed to. Their importance is so much less in the show than they were in the books. It bothers me some but everything else is so good. I suppose if I had to choose between the budget being spent on having more direwolf scenes and having awesome looking dragons I would choose the dragons. So maybe they made the right choice there. Anyone else notice that Jon had a different reason that he gave to Mance for joining the army beyond the wall than what he said in the books? I actually kind of liked that change, though. Seems more in Snow's character. When this show is finally over, they need to have a spin-off show that is only Tyrion and Bronn adventuring throughout the land. Those two are money every time they interact.
I agree, but still there are characters from the book I think would be cool on screen. Strong Belwas is one. Spoiler
James Hibberd's recaps are very funny and great at explaining what's going on. http://tvrecaps.ew.com/recap/game-of-thrones-season-3-premiere/
My assessment as well. Definitely enjoyed it, and fully invested... hour did go by amazingly fast. But not much seemed to happen. Also, the ending was very abrupt. Even in past early season episodes, I feel like the ending was a little more obvious. Here it just seemed to end, and I thought there was at least another scene coming.
Pretty uneventful episode but it is going to be a very exciting season. Lots of stuff goes down this season in the book, can't wait to see the awesomeness
Keep in mind, this season is only half of the book "A Storm of Swords". The 2nd half events from the book probably won't be in this season.
Which is also likely why the Red Viper won't be there this season like K mf G wanted. IIRC, he really doesn't appear until after the point where they're planning on stopping this season.
I thought he was there at the beginning of Storm of Swords, but really didn't play a significant roll until the end. The 2 season thing is a good idea now that I think about it, it seems the book climaxes about midway through the book, then climaxes once again at the end.
I thought the role was already casted? I may be wrong. However, I always pictured Naveen Andrews as the Red Viper, that would be awesome if he got the role.
