SDCC Day 2: Dead shred a rather genitive Game!

Hordes of Hall Knights and Con Zombies earned their grass-stains yesterday with the return of two of last year’s most popular Comic Con panels, AMC’s The Walking Dead and HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Thing is, the quality of these enormously popular panels exchanged a surprisingly ‘lil flip-flop.

Dead spread a thick infection of electricity throughout their Hall H panel, with the long-awaited arrival of a mysterious, katana-wielding fatale named Michonne, played by Danai Gurira. The already colossal world of Thrones only got larger as well; yet, admittingly, I’m finding myself less enthused for the new, predominately Eastern European cast without having studied the books first. Trust the Rev; there’s nothing wrong with that notion if you don’t want to ruin one of television’s greatest series.

Arguably the show’s biggest star, Peter Dinklage, also decided upon sipping mai tai’s and getting his toes feathered over posing a disinterested look in front of about 6500 people. And at least some of us comprehend the significant scale of character deaths directed by novelist, head consultant, and panel host George R.R. Martin.

We get that.

But there was a further hint of disappointment in the lack of overall big names missing – to this true life version of Celebrity Duck Hunt — besides repeat guest Emilia Clarke, who you’d never confuse for the Queen of the Dragons waiting in line at Starbucks, and Mother Stark, the exquisite Michelle Fairley. And it didn’t help to leave out noteworthy bonus footage, or even an extensive trailer (unliked Dead, just below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9_lkap-uFA

So, thank God HBO hooks up the best fucking schwag-bag in the business:

And thankfully for The Walking Dead, they didn’t need to rely on handing out books, pins or shirts; all needed on this Friday afternoon was moderator and host of “Talking Dead,” Chris Hardwick. The Nerdist Industries leader killed, came back to life with his energetic cast, and killed again.

And he sure as shit slaughtered “Glen,” played by Steven Yeun.

On the unforeseen heartthrob’s apparent fan demographic, Chris yelped that Yeun could have just as easily been “banned from Legoland and thrown into (next year’s) Twilight panel.” On a tad more serious note, the actor spoke about the progression his character made from season 1, from potential manhood to further realization to indubitable leader.

But, despite this maturity boost, Glen has somewhat failed at fully submerging himself into the grasp of romantic interest, “Maggie” (Lauren Cohen). Thankfully – or perhaps not – Yeun’s got plenty of adoring fans to go around. “I’m sure you could just read ingredients to Bisquick and (fans) would love you.”

Steamy sex and unremarkable romanticism surprisingly served the streamline for today’s panels.

With all this raunchy content slipping into episodes of Game of Thrones, some storylines have even been compared to scenes from films that you might see on an adult website such as porn7 xxx.

When asked which he found more intriguing, Richard Madden’s “Robb Stark” would rather slice off enemy skulls than face the frozen Scottish Isles in the scantily-clad. “I’d rather swing my sword around,” as the heir to Winterfell continued, “oh, not like that!”

Alfie Allen, who plays Theon Grayjoy, had no problem accepting his “darker, more complex…more interesting” Thrones season 2. When speaking further upon his tragic turn, Allen agreed with Martin’s “darker shade of gray” perspective: “(Theon) is misguided. He’s got issues. But I’d like to think I relate to that. I don’t think there are any more good, straightforward characters in the Game of Thrones.” The famed writer didn’t enjoy a thank you, though, for the epic amounts of sex scenes he dotted out for Theon’s “healthy libido” with Ros the redheaded whore, the Captain’s daughter, Osha the Wildling, and “almost with your sister. All thanks to things I wrote, and have I gotten even a box of chocolates?”

Maybe Martin saved a few incombustible calories, but he didn’t win the war. Thankfully, the only thing that mattered to Martin on that Friday afternoon was reclaiming adoration of thousands despite this sophomore slump of constant sexcapades, and the Con’s Walking Dead wizardry.

We, of course, are still very fucking much excited.

More highlights from SDCC’s Hall H:

• When a question was asked to the Brit’s on the show (Cohen and Andrew Lincoln) about the process of learning their southern drawls, Lincoln admitted that he’s typically able to absorb accents like a sponge. And while producers on the show were afraid of “subtitling” the series’ Rick Grimes, Hardwick bonked that all they had to do was “go sit in a Cracker Barrell for a hours – you’ll pick (the accents) up real quick.”

• Rose Leslie was the only member of Thrones actually born and raised in a castle. “It definitely was not Winterfell. Though, a game of hide-and-seek would last for days!” Martin fired back when it was discovered Leslie’s brother inherited such a citadel, “Is there a Dungeon? Maybe we ought to shoot some scenes there!”

• Lincoln also looked towards the book The Road for influence on how his character pushes people away in the protagonists’ similarities in the need to protect their son. “He loses his humanity by having isolated himself from the group and his marriage, and that’s the way he protects everyone. I currently going batshit-crazy by the way, the last few weeks I’m going bananas (filming Dead) which is great. (Grimes) soon realizes he needs other people” to erase this widely dubbed Ricktatorship.

• David Morrissey who’ll play the much-lauded baddie from the comic, The Governor, showed much enthusiasm for working on Dead: “I came into the show as a fan. I’ve known Andy (Lincoln) for a long time — I just loved it. The thing they can never prepare you for, is walking onto the set and discovering they have a great crew. People want to be there. They want to work on this show.” And he’ll want to eventually kill them all.

• While we thought it was announced some time ago that “Darryl” (Norman Reedus) would be introduced into the actual comic book, that proved false Friday as Robert Kirkman put a stop to that. The creator claimed that he already planned out too much of Dead ahead to include the crossbow-sporting, redneck lovechild.