I love the gritty, dark, and almost melancholy feel of the visuals, especially in the North. Seeing members of House Stark in their dark Fur-lined cloaks. There was a shot near the end, during Old nan's tale, where we see all the Stark children lined up - Bran, Arya, Sansa and Robb - and I squealed. I loved that shot!

Sean Bean as Eddard Stark doesn't bother me, while he may not look like how I had envision the character, Sean Bean really gets the 'I don't want to be here' quality of Ned on screen. We can see that he doesn't care for the rules of the Game of Thrones. He just does what he believes is the honorable thing. Period. Whatever the consequences. Which really is the tragedy of the character.

What really bothers me is Michelle Fairley as Catylen Stark. She really isn't what I'd imagine the character to look like at all, and I still think she's a little too old for the role. And considering that Catelyn has a fairly important role especially in the first 3 books, I'm still sour on this choice. Obviously it's really early being judgmental, and I'll most likely end up regretting my words after watching more scenes of her in the series, but at this point in time I wish Jennifer Ehle was still playing the role.