Winter Is Coming 

Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, is dead. King Robert Baratheon plans to ask his oldest friend, Eddard Stark, to take Jon's place. Across the sea, Viserys Targaryen plans to wed his sister to a nomadic warlord in exchange for an army.

Director:

Timothy Van Patten (as Tim Van Patten)

Writers:

David Benioff (created by), D.B. Weiss (created by)

Stars:

Sean Bean, Mark Addy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Bean	...	Eddard 'Ned' Stark
Mark Addy	...	Robert Baratheon
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau	...	Jaime Lannister
Michelle Fairley	...	Catelyn Stark
Lena Headey	...	Cersei Lannister
Emilia Clarke	...	Daenerys Targaryen
Iain Glen	...	Jorah Mormont
Harry Lloyd	...	Viserys Targaryen
Kit Harington	...	Jon Snow
Sophie Turner	...	Sansa Stark
Maisie Williams	...	Arya Stark
Richard Madden	...	Robb Stark
Alfie Allen	...	Theon Greyjoy
Isaac Hempstead Wright	...	Bran Stark
Jack Gleeson	...	Joffrey Baratheon

Storyline

In the land of Winterfell, Lord Ned Stark begins to believe that something is amiss. A deserter from the Night Watch, the guardians of the giant ice wall at the northern boundary of their territory, says he's seen the white walkers. Later, Ned and his sons find animals slain in the woods, including a she-wolf whose six pups they keep, one for each of Ned's children. They also welcome the arrival of Ned's good friend King Robert who was once betrothed to Ned's sister. She was killed before they could marry and he wed Cersei Lannister who has given him a son, Joffrey. Along with them are Cersei's two brothers, the handsome Jaime and Tyrion, a dwarf with very large appetites. The King wants Ned to return with him to his capital, King's Landing, and become the King's Hand. Ned accepts but his young son Bran accidentally sees something he should not have and suffers a serious fall as a result. Meanwhile, in the land across the narrow sea, Viserys Targaryen needs an army to attack King's ...

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Plot Keywords:

king | deserter | man undressing a woman | body parts arranged in a pattern | woman wearing a sheer dress | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 April 2011 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Malta

Box Office

Budget:

£10,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Home Box Office (HBO),Television 360,Grok! Studio

Technical Specs

Runtime:

62 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The structure with large pillars in right of the landscape shot of King's Landing is the original design of the Great Sept of Baelor. The season one Blu-ray special features show the early concept art for the sept, which was originally designed to resemble a medieval cathedral, consisting of seven huge spokes leaning in against each other. While the Great Sept of Baelor is featured in the climax of Game of Thrones: Baelor (2011), there was not a wide shot of the structure until Game of Thrones: And Now His Watch Is Ended (2013) where it appears as a dome-like structure as was used for the rest of the series.

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Goofs

When Benjen goes to talk to Ned at the feast, his hair is shorter and styled differently than when he talked to Jon just a few minutes earlier. This is because the feast shot was one of the few shots from the unaired pilot episode, that was used in the first episode.

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Quotes

Jon Snow: There are five pups. The direwolf is the sigil of your house. They were meant to have them.
Eddard Stark: You will train them yourselves. You will feed them yourselves. And if they die, you will bury them yourselves.

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Crazy Credits

The sun tells an important part of the series back story, on its panels. It does so in three segments. First, as the credits start up, the sun depicts how the Targaryens and their dragons conquered Westeros. The second time the sun is shown, a dragon is depicted in a mortal struggle with 3 other animals: The Stag, the Lion and the Wolf. It is a very literal way to show how Robert Beratheon and Ned Stark rebelled, with Tywin Lannister reluctantly supporting them, in the end. Finally, the third time the sun is shown, before the series title enter the scene, a lion (among other animals) is shown "kneeling" to a triumphant Stag. Just as Robert was crowned King after winning the war.

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Connections

Referenced in Game of Thrones: The Spoils of War (2017)

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Soundtracks

Main Title
(uncredited)
Written and Performed by Ramin Djawadi

User Reviews

A Game Worth Playing

Reviews Of Unusual Size!

Re: Based on the novels by George R.R. Martin, Game Of Thrones tells of a land of seven kingdoms, surrounded by intrigue, death, sex, family duty and what men and women are willing to do to sit on the iron throne.

Outstanding: I loved the title sequence, I thought it was beautiful and clever. The casting in this is great, with a lot of small name (or no name) actors and everyone is very good. The settings and costumes are elaborate and realistic.

Unacceptable: A few of the scenes in this episode felt poorly shot/acted, with lingering shots of characters doing something a bit awkwardly to drag out the dramatic tension. I have a hard time seeing them sandwich the entire book into a ten episode series without it feeling rushed.

Summary: So far, a gallant effort by the filmmakers. The world of the seven kingdoms is beautiful and dangerous and the characters are right out of the books, with a lot of the dialogue true to the source material. I knew from the get go that I was going to be all about Peter Dinklage as the dwarf Tyrion and sure enough, he's spectacular, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Joseph Mawle as Benjen. I've never seen him in anything else, but I really dig him. A promising start.

4/5