{"id":229037,"date":"2021-04-17T02:16:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T23:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/revisiting-the-games-of-thrones-pilot-10-years-later\/"},"modified":"2021-04-17T02:16:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T23:16:07","slug":"revisiting-the-games-of-thrones-pilot-10-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/revisiting-the-games-of-thrones-pilot-10-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"#Revisiting the Games of Thrones Pilot 10 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Revisiting the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Game<\/a>s of Thrones Pilot 10 Years Later<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.9--><em>This essay is part of our <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a>\u00a0<strong>Episodes<\/strong>, a column in which senior contributor\u00a0Valerie Ettenhofer digs into the singular chapters of television that make the medium great. This entry looks back on the Game of Thrones pilot, \u201cWinds of Winter,\u201d for its tenth anniversary. You could call it a Very Special Episodes.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Even the biggest show in the world has to start somewhere. Before <strong><em>Game of Thrones<\/em><\/strong> won a record-breaking fifty-nine Emmys, dominated a decade\u2019s worth of watercooler conversations, and changed the scope of television forever, it was simply a new HBO show with something to prove. And on April 17, 2011, the pilot episode, \u201cWinter is Coming,\u201d started off with a bang \u2014 or, more specifically, a beheading.<\/p>\n<p>Created by <strong>David Benioff<\/strong> and <strong>D.B. Weiss <\/strong>and based on <strong>George R.R. Martin<\/strong>\u2019s popular series of fantasy novels called <em>A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em>, the show opens its first episode with a chilly, unnerving, and utterly captivating prologue. The sequence begins with the sound of heavy gates rumbling open. We see people on horses, torches in the dark, cold breath in the winter air. Im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely, the direction by <strong>Tim Van Patten<\/strong> is striking, setting up shots for maximum surprise, impact, and beauty.<\/p>\n<p>Three men wr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ed in furs are scouting the woods on horseback. One glimpses a whirl of smoke over the ledge of a snowy embankment. He army-crawls towards the smoke, only to make a gruesome discovery: there\u2019s a mess of frozen body parts, including heads on spikes. Disturbingly, these parts seem to make some sort of geometric pattern. He turns to run, only to come face to face with the corpse of a frozen young girl, pinned to a tree in an eerie, upright imitation of life.<\/p>\n<p>The man runs back to his scouting party in fright. A bony, shadowy figure with glowing blue eyes suddenly appears and slaughters a man. A figure across the clearing turns out to be the doll-like frozen girl, reanimated, her own ice-blue eyes a shock to the system as she slowly turns around. Just before <strong>Ramin Djawadi<\/strong>\u2018s now-famous theme song plays for the first time, we see a severed head unceremoniously flung at the feet of the only survivor.<\/p>\n<p>In retrospect, this powerhouse opening sequence is an anomaly. It\u2019s like something out of a horror movie that feels utterly removed from the series\u2019 high political drama. I\u2019ve shown \u201cWinter is Coming\u201d to many friends over the past decade, and every single one has been thrown for a loop by the immediate presence of ice zombies in what they\u2019d imagined was a Medieval war drama. Yet this opening, and the scene that follows \u2014 in which solemn Ned Stark (<strong>Sean Bean<\/strong>) beheads the Night\u2019s Watch deserter who witnessed the White Walkers \u2014 actually impart a lot about what to expect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinter is Coming\u201d is a text that only grows richer in retrospect. Upon rewatch, the one-off shock of the opening sequence gives way to a series of omens: not only will the series\u2019 would-be protagonist lose his own head before the first season\u2019s end, but the White Walkers will eventually become the ultimate threat to humankind \u2014 an enemy that forces previously warring factions to unite or else face total extinction.<\/p>\n<p>The episode sets a violent, shocking tone that only one-ups itself as <em>Game of Thrones<\/em> continues. When the fearful scout declares \u201cThey even killed the children!\u201d he may as well be giving the series\u2019 mission statement. Even the three unnamed members of the Night\u2019s Watch seem to reflect three distinct styles of leadership that we\u2019ll see again and again during the show\u2019s run: there\u2019s the truth-teller, the arrogant asshole, and the cautious traditionalist. It\u2019s worth noting that regardless of their differences, all three end up dead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinter is Coming\u201d soon introduces us to Winterfell, a chilly but relatively warm-hearted northern realm guarded over by the sprawling Stark family. On first watch, scenes of the Stark children playing and teasing one another appear to be simple character introductions, but with eight seasons of hindsight, these moments play much more somber. The scenes unfold like the old family videos that one would play over a funeral \u2014 something for surviving family members to point to and say, \u201cThat was the happiest we ever were.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ned and his wife, Catelyn (<strong>Michelle Fairley<\/strong>), tend to their large brood, which includes kids Robb (<strong>Richard Madden<\/strong>), Sansa (<strong>Sophie Turner<\/strong>), Arya (<strong>Maisie Williams<\/strong>), Bran (<strong>Isaac Hempstead Wright<\/strong>), and Rickon (<strong>Art Parkinson<\/strong>), plus Ned\u2019s bastard son, Jon Snow (<strong>Kit Harington<\/strong>), and ward, Theon Greyjoy (<strong>Alfie Allen<\/strong>). By the series\u2019 end, five of the nine will be dead, but in these early scenes, we\u2019re just learning about who they are.<\/p>\n<p>While Sansa excels at needlepoint, Arya skips sewing lessons to shoot an arrow at a bullseye instead. Ned is duty-bound but a creature of habit. As an illegitimate child, Jon feels his difference like a thorn in his side. While the Starks aren\u2019t the only major players introduced in this hour, their scenes are miniature character studies worth paying attention to. They are the only scenes we will ever get with every family member together.<\/p>\n<p>Soon, word arrives that Ned\u2019s mentor, Jon Arryn, has died, and King Robert Baratheon (<strong>Mark Addy<\/strong>) heads north to ask the Stark patriarch to join him in Westeros\u2019 capital as the new Hand of the King. When the party arrives, it\u2019s in what most television productions would consider a large-scale scene, complete with dozens of extras, live animals, and many moving parts. In a testament to the way the series revolutionized the TV landscape, it also looks like child\u2019s play compared to the ambitious, epic battle scenes <em>Game of Thrones<\/em> would undertake in future episodes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinter is Coming\u201d is steeped in long-term foreshadowing in a way that most TV pilots are not, from Robert\u2019s reference to Lyanna Stark \u2014 a deceased character who becomes integral to the plot six full seasons later \u2014 to young Danaerys Targaryen (<strong>Emilia Clarke<\/strong>) across the sea, stepping into a scalding bath without burning.<\/p>\n<p>The first episode of <em>Game of Thrones<\/em> benefits from a plethora of source material that allowed Benioff and Weiss to hone in on characters and themes that would matter far down the road. As a pilot, it\u2019s a bit of an iceberg; pretty much every scene is doing something massively important, but it\u2019s tough to understand the depth and enormity of it all until you\u2019re further along the collision course the series has charted.<\/p>\n<p>While much of the episode has become richer with age and context, \u201cWinter is Coming\u201d isn\u2019t without its faults. Scenes of the Dothraki horde, the Eastern clan that teenage Danaerys is married into in this first installment, are particularly disappointing. The Dothraki are some of the only people of color presented in the entirety of <em>Game of Thrones<\/em>, and they\u2019re unfortunately defined by brutality and base instincts.<\/p>\n<p>In one memorable scene, Danaerys \u2014 pale white and elegantly dressed, in the first of many scenes that physically frame her like a potential savior figure \u2014 watches as grunting Dothraki warriors fight to the death over a woman they want to sexually conquer in front of an audience. The veil of fantasy often offers creators a flexible excuse for such racist failures of imagination, but in 2021, after witnessing the show\u2019s spotty track record on the topics of race and gender, it\u2019s impossible to view this scene and give the writer behind it the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the questionable material she\u2019s given, Emilia Clarke is an early standout in the <em>Game of <\/em><em>Thrones<\/em> cast. Ultimately one of the series\u2019 most polarizing characters, Danaerys is introduced as an abuse survivor who\u2019s already been hollowed out by the manipulations of her older brother. She faces her arranged marriage not with the look of steely resolve that we see so often later on, but with a sort of haunted vacancy that gives way to open fear and pain.<\/p>\n<p>The women of <em>Game of <\/em><em>Thrones<\/em> are pretty much immediate standouts across the board. <strong>Lena Headey<\/strong> is effortlessly excellent as Robert\u2019s wife, Cersei, a woman whose disgust with her situation is as evident as it is complicated. Sophie Turner\u2019s Sansa Stark wouldn\u2019t become a fan favorite until many seasons later, but the origins of her hard-won power begin here, as her romanticized ideas about the future are discreetly countered by both a wary Catelyn and the power-hungry Cersei.<\/p>\n<p>If ice zombies are the hook that destabilized\u00a0<em>Game of<\/em> <em>Thrones<\/em> viewers enough to keep them interested in the pilot, the final scene of \u201cWinds of Winter\u201d is what ensnared them for the long haul. This is a story with a lot of hope in its framework, but the show has become best-known for its violence and tragedy. No early moment embodies that ethos quite as succinctly as the one in which Bran Stark happens upon Cersei and her twin brother Jaime (<strong>Nikolaj Coster-Waldau<\/strong>) in the throes of passion in one of Winterfell\u2019s towers.<\/p>\n<p>Bran doesn\u2019t realize that he\u2019s stumbled upon a secret that could topple the entire power system of Westeros. It\u2019s a scene that\u2019s taut with tension. \u201cHe saw us,\u201d Cersei says, then repeats it, an unspoken demand in her voice. Jaime grabs Bran by the collar but then releases him, and for a moment, we\u2019re able to catch our breath. He asks Bran his age \u2014 ten \u2014 then looks at Cersei with what can only be described as casual annoyance. \u201cThe things I do for love,\u201d he says, then pushes Bran from the tower window. The last thing we see before the credits roll is the boy\u2019s body hurtling towards the ground.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past ten years, <em>Game of Thrones<\/em> has served countless functions in the TV landscape. It\u2019s shock and awe. It\u2019s a modern Shakespearean tragedy. It\u2019s an ensemble drama with a character for everyone. It\u2019s a political drama that tricks you into thinking you aren\u2019t watching a show about politics. It\u2019s event television, the kind of show that necessitates watch parties and theory breakdowns and an incredible, exhaustive level of collective obsession.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back at \u201cWinter is Coming,\u201d the episode that started it all, it\u2019s clear that the team behind the epic series knew it was event television long before it had the audience to match its ambition. To crib from a great Jaime Lannister quote: there are no shows like <em>Game of Thrones<\/em>. There is only <em>Game of Thrones<\/em>.\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/game-of-thrones-pilot\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=game-of-thrones-pilot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Revisiting the Games of Thrones Pilot 10 Years Later&#8221; This essay is part of our series\u00a0Episodes, a column in which senior contributor\u00a0Valerie Ettenhofer digs into the singular chapters of television that make the medium great. This entry looks back on the Game of Thrones pilot, \u201cWinds of Winter,\u201d for its tenth anniversary. You could call&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Game-of-Thrones-pilot.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[7059,5157,102420],"class_list":["post-229037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-episodes","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-winter-is-coming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}