ive never read the books...i havent even heard of it until i saw yalls board. i downloaded the first episode and liked it now ive got the whole first season downloading. will i be alright watching it if i havent read the books?
yes, it takes a few episodes to understand who all the characters are, but you dont need to read the book
The first season of the show essentially equals the first book. A little difference but the season 1 of the show is telling the story up to the end of book 1. Now I, along with everyone else, will recommend you read book 1 at some point either way.
Finished up season 1 on Thurs night. Mind = Blown. Amazing show. Bout to start getting into the books. Should I start at book 2?
Lord, no. read book 1. There is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much the TV show leaves out.
There isn't that much that book 1 left out. Mostly just added dialogue to the scenes we saw in the show. They actually did a decent job for this being their first time doing this. There is enough in book 1 to warrant reading it though. Also they changed some of the timeline. Like you'll see book 2 and somewhat book 3 stuff in season 1. Not really a spoiler but i'll give you an example.. Spoiler Cat's talk with Jaime actually happens in the second book So yeah i'd read book 1 first. It's a very easy read and definitely worth it.
Spoiler Ned's fevered thoughts about the Tower of Joy alone make reading the book a necessity. Add in Spoiler the direwolves, the depiction of Shae, Danys' wedding, the tourny for the King's new Hand (Ned), the discussion of religion, almost everything about Tyrion's imprisonment, and subsequent trial, at the Vale, The Hound and Sansa's "relationship". Needless to say, a lot.
I'm not gonna comment on each one because that would be tedious to do with spoilers but again I don't think it's as big of a deal as you're making it out to be. Most of that has no impact on book 2-4. I mean there's even more than what you posted that was left out such as black fish but I don't think it ends up being that big of a deal in the end.
Just to further what I what I said above I think they will fix some omissions in the later seasons. It's hard to judge them when we don't know their plan for the series. I mean a conversation that happened between two people Spoiler c & j doesn't happen till a future book but appeared in season 1 and to sum it all up Just read the damn book. It's good stuff.
If i could choose my experience I'd Wwatch season 1 and then read book 1-5. I'd imagine book 1 would be so much easier to grasp if I'd watched the first season on hbo.
I mean his books read like a history book imo. So seeing what people look like first helped It's a great way to explain deaths of characters. He's writing a story that just happens to have characters in it and not the other way around like most books are.
this is what i did (or am in the process of doing). sometimes when i think about stuff from book 2 or 3, i visualize it in my head and it feels like i've already seen the scene in the show. i have to say it's quite awesome