After the first episode of Game of Thrones, all I really have to say is that I want more. Half because of the amazing cliffhanger, and half because I fell I need more to really understand what is going on.
This world is dense and I feel like this first episode has only scratched the surface. There are the Starks, the Lannisters, the Targaryens, and the King of some other noble family, I'm sure. There is a great amount of history in this world and between these families. In this first episode, however, you only get hints of these things and it instead focuses on the here and now. I like this approach, just throwing you in and letting the watcher figure things out. I just hope as the season moves on, things become clearer.
The first episode does an admirable job of setting up the major story arcs. Eddard 'Ned' Stark seems to be the main protagonist and with the death of the Hand of the King has been asked to fill the vacancy. The previous Hand may have been murdered by the conniving (and incestuous) Lannister twins, Queen Cersei and her brother Jamie, and Ned feels he needs to be by his friend's side to protect him.
The other half of the story is far removed in distance, but not in theme. While the Queen plots to take the throne at home, across the Narrow Sea the children of the previous king, Targaryen, are plotting to build an army to retake the throne. Well, at least one is plotting. Viserys is using his sister, Daenerys, by marryin her to the barbarian king to raise that previously mentioned army. Viserys is a huge creep with only one goal in mind, and feels nothing at all in whoring out his own sister in his pursuit of the crown.
The plot has only started moving, and while intriguing, doesn't grab you like the characters do. The stand outs so far are the Sean Bean as Ned Stark in his quiet nobility, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, the dimunitive third Lannister sibling, Kit Harrington as Jon Snow, the bastard son of Ned, and Mark Addy, as King Robert Baratheon.
The one-two punch at the end of the episode was a real stand out moment. The revelation of the Lannister twins "special" relationship, and then Jamie so casually pushing Bran out the window was a true act of evil. The way it was set up so wonderfully with Bran's climbing really earned the gut-wrenching payoff of the closing seconds.
One last thing, the opening credits are gorgeous. Credit sequences are a dying breed these days, but HBO is, thankfully so, usually an exception.
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