Hear me Roar.

The House Lannister feature from the HBO website. Link from youtube.

This is the business. Jaime is my favourite character in the books. When the series starts people will hate me for that, but bear with him, honestly.

We open with some material that isn’t in the books, an aspect from the past of the twin’s life that sets up their characters. Jaime is not afraid of much and Cersei will sell anyone down the river for approval.

D.B. Weiss is up now talking about his vision for the series; fortunately it is similar to David Benioff’s so the series should not have thematic errors from one episode to the next.

Next George is back with that sensual lustrous beard.  Some discussion is given to the wealth that the Lannister’s possess, because there is a lot of it.

King’s Landing is looking every bit the opulent pit that it is. It is so easy to imagine this richly appointed palace with the starving masses screaming in squalor outside.

The Lannister lion is gold on a red field, the same heraldic device as house Gryffindor from the Harry Potter books. I was delighted when I read that and I am glad to see they have not changed it for fear of plagiarism.

Cersei’s marriage was arranged, but she loved Robert in the beginning. I am not too sure about this. Ultimately it comes down to Lena Headey’s interpretation of her feelings. I am concerned that she may try and make Cersei too sympathetic, too likable and not the heartless would-be manipulator she really is.

Let’s talk about Lena Headey for a moment. She is pretty enough I suppose, but not blonde which is a big thing. Although the costume department have given wigs where needed they come out more strawberry blonde than shining gold. The scenes they show suggest that she is the sort of person who would slaughter a child to get what she wants, but Headey’s words do not seem to reflect that. I will have to see her in the series of course, but making Cersei sympathetic in this way is one thing that could really hurt the character.

Before we start on Jaime I am going to have to talk about Nikolaj Coster Waldu. He is a gorgeous man who looks like a heroic knight. That aspect of Jaime he has down perfectly. He doesn’t look like Lena Heady’s twin however. Oh well, short of having Tilda Swinton play both twins I suppose that would have been difficult. Jaime is also supposed to have long hair. Not that I mind I suppose, Nikolaj’s hair looks okay.

Now that is out of the way I want to talk about what they have done with Jaime. I love Jaime, I could write entire essays on Jaime. When the series is over and I need content for this blog you might well be subjected to such things! From what I have seen so far Jaime seems to be the character that has had the most new stuff added. This is probably because he isn’t really in very much of the first book that the series is based on. In the book he comes across as an evil heartless bastard until we see him for more than a paragraph when he begins the path to becoming an incredibly sympathetic character. Some of the new stuff seems to be about humanising him, and I am all for that. Make him the character that he is in the first series and we can have the wonderful debates from this series that I have had from the books.

Peter Dinklage is far too pretty to be Tyrion Lannister. I will say that right now. Tyrion is supposed to be hideous and deformed a wretched little imp of a man. Dinklage’s Tyrion seems to be suave and charming where the Tyrion in the books is witty and cunning. I’m not crazy about the accent either. That being said Mr. Dinklage seems to have the character down to a tee, and was GRRM’s first choice for the role, so I am looking forward to seeing what he does with it.

A Lannister always pays his debts. It is said with such power. Although I am less happy with the Lannisters than the Starks from what I have seen so far, I am looking forward to them more because I prefer the characters. So bring on the Villains I say. They are so much better than the goody good heroes. When winter has come and gone we will still hear the lion’s roar.