Whoa - Game of Thrones - I have read books 1 through 5 - I guess the scenes you describe are in HBO version - the poor girl in armor is Brienne - the boy who fell is Bran Stark, yes, Joffrey and the Margeary gal are one dimensional - Tywin Lannister "shits gold."
In the books, the characters are quite multidimensional - books 1-3 are the best - I read my eyes out too. But #4 is padded and #5 too - George R.R. Martin has a penchant for killing off your faves, so be warned.
I am correct in that I decided not to watch the TV - one reason, I have no TV :) and the other, I have already formed an image of the characters in my head, and I can't relate to their too real !! TV representations - in the fiction, the books, they are more real to me -
Great argument for reading rather than watching (TV)
The dragons, I guess the TV version has not got to them yet? -- They are overused in Western fantasies. GRRM uses all the tricks in the book to make them real, but they only get real when they get uncontrollable - I think they are best viewed as a metaphor for the arms race.
