A Different Kind of Game

A new month, and the dramatic increase in pageviews continues. We're not even seven full days in, and already I've gotten more hits than six of the past nine months [EDIT: 7 of the past 9 as of the afternoon of 8 June]. All this, without posting in the first six days. I say this not to brag, but out of personal curiosity. What drives traffic often seems mysterious. As I posited in my previous post, the impending Warcraft may have something to do with it. Now that I am looking, two of my three most popular all time posts are film related, and one in the top five was a Star Trek RP fic with what turned out to be a popular photo. It will be interesting to see whether the traffic drops off after this weekend.

Anyhoo, while I have played on my new Zabraks a bit over the past week (they're each up to 23), Scooter and I really haven't played much together. Unfortunately, the comfort of couch gaming is sometimes offset by the production of bringing the laptops out to the living room and setting the whole thing up. Watching the boob toob is easy enough, but last Monday evening, we didn't really find anything of interest on Netflix or Hulu. I reminded Scooter (yet again) that a copy of the first season of Game of Thrones had sat in our video collection (for over a year now) that we had yet to break the seal on. A fact she had somehow managed to forget even though I bring it up with some regularity whenever we are discussing entertainment options.

Thus began our binge. Those of you who have watched the whole series to this past Sunday—or who've read the books—probably think we are silly for waiting so long to start. And I agree. During one of my business trips, I caught the premiere episode; I have seen one or two more in hotel rooms across the country. However, we don't subscribe to cable TV, much less a premium channel like HBO, so we haven't seen the whole series. Moreover, when I started the book, I had a hard time with the capricious cruelty of more than a few characters and—perhaps worse—found myself bored by scenes that I had not seen in my sporadic viewings.

MINOR SPOILERS (Skip past the picture below.)

But the pacing of a dramatic presentation is different than that of a book. And we found ourselves enjoying the show, even though Scooter covered her eyes during some of the more gruesome parts. I do like how none of the characters are completely good or evil. The two that are most good in my estimation are Ned and Dany, though of course both have flaws—some of them fatal. Ned's incomplete support of John Snow, for example, and perhaps his over-support of old friend Robert Baratheon. Dany is just coming into her own, but even she makes mistakes, like trusting the shepherd priestess. On the other hand, even the "bad guys" show some redeeming qualities. Except Joffrey, I can't wait for that little prick to choke.

SPOILERS OVER

We watched all ten episodes of the first season in less than week, including four on Friday night, not going to bed until 1 o'clock in the morning. There have been plenty of reviews of Game of Thrones so I'll keep this brief, we love it. We need to get the second season and watch that, and I foresee us spending a pretty penny to get the remaining seasons over the next few months.

NOTE: I've set moderation on full. If I feel a comment is too spoilery (for any of the seasons), I will crush it.

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