The Stars Come Out for Seattle’s Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere

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HBO spared no expense last night at the Seattle Game of Thrones premiere where a select group of “Westeros VIPs” were given a private screening of the first episode of the new season.  Before the showing stars of the series walked the red carpet while members of the press asked questions.  The entire red carpet event was streamed live into the theater where non-Press VIPs could see the their favorite characters as they approached.

Who was there, you ask?  None other than Maisie Williams (Arya), Sophie Turner (Sansa), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime), Rose Leslie (Ygritte), John Bradley (Sam) and Natalie Dormer (Margery).  Wait there was one more minor character… I can’t quite seem to remember ladies, sorry…
Oh, right: Kit Harrington aka Jon Snow was also there to catch fainting female (and some male) fans and suprisingly weak-kneed members of the press as well.

Needless to say this blogger was absolutely star struck for the entire night.  While HBOWatch didn’t get to ask many questions ourselves we did hang out with Bruce Ramsey (no relation to Lord Ramsay, thankfully) of the Seattle Times and Ali Brownrigg of Seattle Magazine who were gracious enough to let us squeeze in next to them at the already-crowded press line and talk to the cast members.  We’ll link you to both of their reports once they’re live.

Needless to say the cast members were extremely gracious with answering the same questions that they’ve most likely been answering for the past week (re: three years).  We joked with Kit about his recent injury via falling out of a first story window telling him not to try and be like Bran anymore.

But you don’t want to read about us hobnobbing with the stars, do you?  You want to know what that first episode of Game of Thrones Season 3 was like!  Well I may be biased as a major fan of both the book sand the show but to this reporter the first episode was stellar.  Watching it on the big screen was a treat as well and it’s not very often you’ll get the opportunity to see Game of Thrones quite like this.

Here are a few SPOILER LADEN takeaways from the first episode.

[box type=”warning”] Seriously though skip past this part if you don’t want to read spoilers from this episode (I won’t spoil anything too major or anything beyond the first episode of season 3)[/box]

Ghost – You’ll see him right away.

Giants – We get our first look at what giants look like in HBO’s version of the wildling camp.

No Arya, Jamie or Brienne – Not in the first episode, at least.

Dragons Look Incredible – The dragons are growing up and they look better than ever.  Props the the VFX team!

Tyrion’s Daddy Issues – Great scene with Peter (Tyrion) and Charles Dance (Tywin) showing the tension in that relationship.  If you didn’t think Tywin was a dick before this episode you probably do now (non-book readers).

The Onion Knight – Great actor here with several scenes and hope to see more from him.

The King in the North – Only one scene at Harrenhal that differs slightly from the book.  Still pissed at his mom for releasing the Kingslayer.

Mance Rayder – Enjoyed Ciaran Hinds’ rendition of Mance (though different from the books). Didn’t get much just yet but so far so good.

Barristan the Bold – His introduction in Essos is completely different from the books (sped up).

I’ll leave it there.  The episode packed in quite a bit more than the above but those were the things my wife (also a book reader) and I discussed at the party afterward.

Speaking of which- when I say HBO spared no expense I’m talking about this incredible party they threw at Seattle’s Experience Music Project.  Unlimited drinks were flowing and table after table of various foodstuffs catered by Wolfgang Puck were there for everyone’s enjoyment.  You could have your picture taken with the Iron Throne and the cast members even came out periodically to mingle and snap photos with anxious fans.

The night was, for lack of a better word, magical.  My wife and I had smiles on our faces for a full five hours and that smile continues as I write this the morning after.  We got to try the new Game of Thrones beer from Ommegang and my wife got to meet her favorite actress in the series: Natalie Dormer (though I’m not sure she believed her when she told her “I’m absolutely your biggest fan).  I’ll never forget telling Nikolaj (Jaime, my personal favorite character) that my wife thinks his character is unforgivably evil  only to have him rebuke “And she’s an angel, I suppose?”  Amazing.

We’d like to thank HBO and the cast members for making this happen.  We had an absolutely unforgettable time.

Here are some of the photos we snapped at the event:

In case you’ve been stranded on the Isle of Faces for the past 3 months and didn’t already know:  Game of Thrones Season 3 premieres March 31 at 9P.  Only on HBO.

 

 

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