I finished reading a Clash of Kings by
George R.R. Martin only a week or two before I did a marathon of
HBO's series Game of Thrones. The book was fresh on my mind while
watching this season. Before HBO released the second season, they
announced that it would not follow the book as closely as the first
season. There are many people out there who seem to believe any
visual adaptation is worse than the original written version. I am
not of that opinion. In fact, I often believe a visual adaptation
makes it better as it forces the writer to focus to get what is
important down and drop the extra crap to fit it all in the various
limits, such as time and budget. But some fluff is nice. There were
definitely characters that greatly benefited from having their
stories edited down; there were also characters who were hurt by
having their story cropped. I plan to go into detail about many of
these changes...so uh, SPOILER WARNING. I'm going to spoil The first
and second season of the show Game of Thrones, as well as the first
three books of the series Fire and Ice.
Season 1 was as identical as I could
expect two completely different mediums to get to each other. George
R.R. Martin's first book of the Fire and Ice series, A Game of
Thrones, lent itself well to a direct visual adaptation. The second
book of the series, A Clash of Kings, did not as much. A big
difference is that much of the action of the first book occurred
directly in front of the characters. Ned Stark was beheaded directly
in front of both Sansa and Arya (oh yes, there will be spoilers).
The major actions that were not chosen to be seen directly were
important too, such as Robert Baratheon dying off screen brought a
question mark over his death as to how he died. For the show, seeing
Ned Stark's execution was incredibly moving (I'm pretty sure I yelled
at the TV for 5-10minutes after wards), and not seeing Robert's death
started the questions of “Was it Cersei? Is there another person
in the game? Was it just a bad coincidence?” This is the same
purpose it had in the book, and thus lent itself well to a film
adaption. Now, in the second book, a lot of the major events are
told second hand. I believe Martin did this on purpose, so that
when we read the book, we were not playing the part of the kings. We
could feel more with the common people and their strife, and we see a
lot of the horrible affects of war on people of all classes. Since
we're a step back, it also leads to how people become legends. The
book dealt a lot with how information changes when its spread word of
mouth. Hearing second hand accounts of Robb and his dire wolf on the
field of battle gave him an aura of heroism, even legendary status.
And in writing, a second hand account of Robb's battles is just as
visually appealing as reading it from Robb's perspective. The only
difference is a set of words, “I heard Robb and his wolf did...”
as opposed to “And then Robb did...” But on the big
screen...that difference is huge. The show would have been boring to
sit down and watch a bunch of random cast members describe a battle
they didn't even see. We, as an audience, needed to see those
battles. In film, we can't go through an entire movie / season of
being told someone is heroic and believe unless we actually get to
watch the character do something heroic. Now, it didn't show every
battle, all we needed was one or two and we knew of Robb's abilities
and heroics.
The Second Season also went a bit into
the third book, A Storm of Swords. I haven't read all of the third
book, but from what I've seen, its longer and has more happening
already. Part of the problem with book 2 is chapter upon chapter
upon chapter rehashes the same thing. Oh, Catelyn Stark is sad about
her father? Bran is still fighting his abilities? And that Arya
should never ever gamble because she has the worlds worst luck ever?
Wait...are you trying to tell me that Joffrey isn't an innocent and
kind soul, because I didn't get that the entire first book. As
opposed to wasting an hour of time repeatedly showing us these
things, like the book did, the show often tried to create a single
poignant scene to encapsulate them all. With film, having a visual
and audio component means we're more likely to retain that, while in
a book sometimes we do need it repeated. Sometimes we don't. And
sometimes we don't care, just like some entire story lines were
dropped.
To continue for more details, I'm
going to break it down much like the book and show breaks it
down...by character.
Robb Stark
Since I already mentioned Robb Stark,
let's start with him. Robb's appearance in the book itself
was...brief. His name is never the lead of a chapter, and the only
time we see him directly is through Catelynn Stark. Like mentioned
above, second hand accounts of Robb's actions really allow him to
appear as a legend, but again, the show would have been boring if
that's all we got. Getting to see the battle where he uses his wolf
to scare the horses and trample the camp lends to the myths that the
book portrays. That he plans well, that he uses his wolf, and that
he is undefeated.
A big change they make though is that
they show Jeyne, the woman to be Robb's wife. I have mixed feelings
about her early show. She doesn't appear in the books until the
third one, and quite abruptly. I love her introduction, and how it
plays out between Robb and Catelynn. In the book, Robb forgives his
mother for releasing Jaime by talking about foolish things done for
love... oh yeah, I betrayed the Freys for love, DEAL WITH IT MOM! I
loved that interaction, the surprise, and in the book it starts to
show that Robb is not just a Warlord, but that he might be able to
play the Game of Thrones better than his dad. But it was random in
the book, and kind of just like “well that was a really dumb
decision” and I haven't read anything beyond that yet. But with
the show, we see her character, how and why he falls in love with her
(beyond her beauty). More importantly, we see what she brings to
him. She's helping him see the armies again as people, she's going
to help him be a good king. And while it removed the awesome
interaction his mother and he has, I like that instead they replaced
it with him being more forceful with his mom and out right telling
her she betrayed him. Over-all, I greatly appreciate that Robb
actually made an appearance in the show, and the changes I feel will
be for the better in the long run.
Jaime
This
is another character that barely appears in the book, but is given
air time on the show. Part of the reason he is given air time is
because it starts going into Season 3.
Personally, I
thought Jaime's end in Book 2 was great. The book has his last
appearance being Catelyn Stark grabbing Brienne's sword, and slashing
out. It ends with the assumption that Jaime is dead, and that
Catelyn's betrayal is the Kingslayer's early execution. I'm a little
confused as to why HBO, who has never had a problem with cliff hanger
endings (*cough Ned Stark cough*), decided to not end Jaime's story
in this season there. They didn't even end it with a question...just
with Brienne defending Jaime. I believed they continued his
storyline though so they could fit in Robb's marriage...but still,
I'd of preferred some cliffhanger for Jaime, whether it be he and
Brienne fighting, the Bloody Mummers, or even just the two hiding
from a patrol.
I disliked that
Jaime didn't repeatedly call Brienne “Wench” as he does in the
book. The show actually has him ask her name, as if he cares. As if
he isn't going to plot her demise for a very very long time. I liked
the cold calculating Jaime from the book; but, we really only got one
scene of him and Brienne, and next season might bring back the word
“Wench.”
The
other change to his minor part is that the book has one of his
cousins also protecting him. This cousins part, which is so minor
I'm not even going to look his name up, serves a limited set of
purposes. One is the logistics that Brienne could not watch Jaime at
all hours of the day without requiring sleep... but when watching a
movie or TV show, logistics like that are generally just ignored or
forgotten (I would've ignored it in the book too, if there wasn't the
repeated mention of them changing shifts over Jaime). The cousin's
other purpose is to show how interconnected these family trees are.
The show really makes me feel like these families are a lot smaller
than thy are supposed to be in the book. In the books, the author
does a great job of detailing family trees and a lot of attention is
put into how big these families are. The Lannister's aren't just
Tywin and his children, Tyrion, Jaime, and Cersei, and than that one
cousin Lancel... but its huge! And they are intermarried with other
families, and a lot of the politics playing out with that. It's one
thing missing from the show... but on the other hand, I do recognize
its not particularly interesting nor is it easy to show. It's also
not necessarily pertinent to the story, and more helps make the world
feel bigger.
Catelyn
Talking about
large families just vanishing; where the hell are the Tully's? It's
really hard for film to depict distances, especially in a fantasy
world. A big thing in the book is that Catelyn is staying with her
family, watching her father die, at the trident. Again, the size and
scope of things is really put into the forefront of the book. One
important part about Catelyn being at the Trident is that Robb is in
the area too, which means Robb is not in Winterfell. He's not really
King of the North, but instead King of the Rivers, and this is very
important to Bran and Theon's story line.
Catelyn plays a
pretty big role in the book. I'm actually really glad they greatly
reduced her appearance in the show, because its basically her moping
around crying that Ned is dead, crying that her children are
captured, crying that her father is dying, crying that her sister
doesn't love her, crying crying crying. Okay, so she has a ton of
reason to cry, and that part of the reason I don't have sympathy for
her in the book is because of dramatic irony and I know that Bran and
Rickon aren't dead, and I know that Arya isn't in Kings Landing, and
I know that Sansa has an escape plan. So, I know a lot of
information she doesn't...but still her action, specifically with
Jaime, are ridiculous. Repeatedly she gives advice to Robb that is
“let's lose the war so I can have my children back.” Let's
ignore the fact that they will be slaughtered after wards for being
traitors.
I haven't read
any feminists' perspectives on the show or book, but reading
Catelyn's storyline is simply upsetting to me. She's weak, she's
irrational, and she really doesn't seem to be capable without a man.
In the book I think she even says she's lost and doesn't know what to
do without Ned. Luckily there are multiple strong female characters
in the book, including Catelyn's own daughter, Arya. I also get the
Martin is trying to depict the unknowable knowledge of how it feels
to lose nearly your entirely family to war... but Martin repeatedly
shows he doesn't necessarily understand women. And because of that,
I'm glad they cut Catelyn's storyline down.
Davos
Hey Davos, nice
of you to make an appearance in the show. In the book, Davos
actually plays an important role outside of just some random captain.
He's Stannis Barratheon's most trusted man, the man who will not lie
to the true heir to the Throne after the Usurper. They also make a
big deal out of Davos' being the Onion Knight, and nearly every
chapter he's in, they mention his hand. While they do mention his
hand being cut at the knuckles, its more to show the type of king
Stannis is, the unquestioning follower of the law. But all of that
is flavor.
A big purpose of
Davos in the book is to show how zealous everyone else is becoming to
the the one true God, Lord of Light, the God of Flame (and shadow),
R'hllor. As opposed to having multiple chapters and pages dedicated
to seeing people become zealous, they really just have two scenes.
The burning of the idols at the beginning, but more pertinent, Davos'
own son being fully converted before the end. Seeing Davos' own son
become a zealot, with us knowing that Davos isn't that religious or
interested in the Lord of Light, says a lot about how many people are
changing.
I
like Davos' character, and I do wish he made a bigger show as
Stannis' most trusted man. With them dropping that, they also
dropped a scene I felt that was very important. Before Stannis
attacks King's Landing, he talks to Davos. Davos advises the king to
not bring Melisandre to the battlefield, because if he does the men
will say it was R'hllor's victory and not Stannis'. This has major
consequences in the third book. One of those consequences is that
the loss at King's Landing is blamed on the fact that Melisandre
wasn't there, and hey, they were all consumed by fire. It also sets
up a lot of conflict between Melisandre and her zealous followers vs.
Davos and his more level headed approach.
Now, real
quick...lets talk about the shadow assassin that Melisandre births.
The book did add more mystery as to what was going on by having a few
people die by the shadow, and we get the answer 100% when Melisandre
kills some not-Renly lord so they can capture a baseborn child of
Robert Barratheon (a storyline completely dropped in the show). Part
of the mystery is something that happens in books easily, but not so
much visual medias, which is the unreliable narrator. The book puts
in repeatedly the question of “What did we actually see?” and
“Did we see what we think we saw?” but when we, the audience,
actually sees a thing, we believe what we were shown. The only time
we don't is when the movie goes out of its way to make us doubt a
character. A lot of spy movies do this, where a pivotal plot point
is only given to us through the story of another character, only to
learn that character is a double agent or something. That would take
a lot of work on the shows behalf just to add a little mystery to the
scene.
Although, they
could have done the shadow creature differently. People who know me
well know that a lot of my own creative writings involve playing with
shadows, so its something I'm interested in. The shadow creature in
the show was amazing, but there was no question that it was real.
That it existed, that it was in the room, and that it lingered for a
second. There was no mystery to existence, and thus very little
magic about it.
Joffrey
Before getting to
Sansa, let's look at Joffrey. There is a lot of time in the book
dedicated to the fact that Joffrey is an asshole. I'm not sure why
any time needs to be spent on this as the first book did a really
good job making the audience utterly hate the little fuck. Well the
show decided that, in case we forgot, lets just give one good scene
to prove Joffrey is a horrible person. They also added that from the
book, Tyrion often joked about getting Joffrey a prostitute. This
single scene is more effective at showing Joffrey's sadism, showing
how much of a monster he is, than all of book 2 rolled into one.
Sansa's fear in Book 3 does a great job in also displaying this, and
I hope Sophie Turner (the actress who plays Sansa) is capable of
showing that if they include the scenes with the Tyrell family...but
until then, Joffrey's prostitution scene is absolutely horrifying,
and if you didn't hate him before, you hate him now...and if you
don't hate him now, please see a psychiatrist as you may be a
sociopath as well.
The only scene
about Joffrey that I miss is the idea that the throne rejects those
who do not deserve to sit on the throne. It is mentioned at least
once that Joffrey is pricked by the throne, and it causes silence in
the court room. Unfortunately, for this scene to be effective they
really have to talk about Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King. The book
goes into a lot of retellings of the history, but unless the show
wants repeated flashbacks or boring narrative dialogue, we don't get
much of the history of the world other than that Robert Barratheon
de-throned the Targaryens. We don't get the full back story of how
horrible Aerys was. This lack of history worsens the fullness of
certain characters and events (we lose a LOT on Jaime by not knowing
about him taking the throne and Ned Stark taking him off of it). We
also lose the detail that Aerys, not only known as the Mad King but
also the Scab King, could not sit in the throne without getting
stabbed, a story about how that throne rejects bad rulers. It would
be a lot of work to put in that most audience members would ignore,
just to give another detail that Joffrey is not the rightful ruler.
Its a scene and concept I thoroughly enjoyed in the book, but it
reinforces something we the audience already knows... Joffrey needs
to die, and ANY of the other would be kings would be better,
including Theon Greyjoy.
What
happened to his little brother, Tommen, though? In the book there is
a great deal of discussion from various individuals, including
Cersei, how Joffrey is going to be a cruel king, and thus not a good
ruler...but that Tommen could be a good king. There's even repeated
talk about assassinating Joffrey to bring Tommen to rule. I believe
there was only one mention in the show about that plan, which was
quickly disregarded. In the book, it felt like a plan that could
come back at anytime, and I really liked that idea that everyone
knows Joffrey will be a bad king, even his mother.
Sansa
They cut a lot of
Sansa out of the book. This is partially because, as mentioned
above, a lot of her story is used to show that the Joffrey and Cersei
are horrible people, which we already know. This might also
partially be because, in both Book 1 and Season 1, Sansa is the only
unlikable Stark (although, I think Catelyn joins those ranks in Book
2, but that's just me).
In book 1, Sansa
is completely in Joffrey. She's naïve and in love in a fantasy
land, and that explains some of what happens. Sansa liking Cersei
makes sense, both in the book and show, as Cersei is definitely
treating Sansa with a lot of respect and love, but it is obvious in
both formats that Joffrey is nothing but cruel, and Sansa lying about
what occurred at the river is incredibly hard to forgive.
In book 2 though,
I start to like Sansa. We really see how she's donned the armor of
niceties to survive. I also think, in the book, she comes off as
much stronger. She defends Dontos, and then starts planning an
escape. She's working at escaping, at doing what she has to to
survive. Yes, she's still a “lady” and not able to do anything
without a man, but we really see her trying. That's important, and
shows that she's growing up and becoming the wolf she's meant to be.
The show really
removed a bunch of that, and removed much of her story. Ser Dontos
only exists in the story to show that Sansa is willing to stand up to
Joffrey when he's in the wrong. After that, Ser Dontos vanishes. He
isn't planning a massive escape plan, we don't see Sansa sneaking off
away from people, we barely see her at all. We do see her armor of
niceties, and what she does to protect herself, but we don't see
anything beyond that. But with the Ser Dontos storyline in the book,
everything is being compared to fabled knights and legendary heroes,
which gives a mixed message in the book. She's not lost in love with
Joffrey anymore, thinking he can do no wrong, but she's still in
fairy-tale land thinking her story will have a happily-ever-after
ending. She's still a naïve child in the book, and Ser Dontos
continues that dream. The show removes that, and gives her a much
harder edge.
The show still
allows her to be strong, in the last few episodes when she's locked
in the room with Cersei. We see her helping individuals, we see her
not being afraid despite the war outside, and we see her reaction to
Cersei's continuing being Cersei. I do miss one line from Sansa,
where Cersei is telling her a queen must rule by fear, and Sansa
counters that the people should love their queen. Still, Sansa
appears strong in this.
There is a hint
of an escape plan at the end. Littlefinger comes to her and tells
her he could help her out. I have not read far enough into book 3 to
know if Sansa still plans on escaping despite certain marital
arrangements, and how Littlefinger plays into that. As is, it looks
like it'll throw some complications in for season 3. I enjoyed that
the book acknowledges things take time, and with time, means plans
can be discovered and ruined. A lot could be played with this, and
in a television show it could be a lot of fun to see these plans play
out.
I LOVED the scene
where Sansa's betrothal to Joffrey is annulled. In the book, it
seemed like they were actually figuring it out, but in the
show...either everyone in that scene sucks as an actor, or (and what
I'm assuming) they purposefully made it seem staged. It being staged
would make sense, and is one of the few times the show adds a better
“there are more gears turning in the background than we even know.”
than the book.
Cersei
Wow is Cersei a
royal bitch, pun intended.
The
show really changed the entire incestuous relationship and bastard
children part. In the book, there is a great deal of time put into
Stannis sending letters out to all the lands making the (true) claim
that all of Cersei's children were fathered by Jaime, not Robert, and
thus Joffrey is not the king. This causes them to launch an equally
distasteful claim about Stannis's no-where to be seen (was she even
mentioned in the show?) daughter. Now, there was a scene where
Littlefinger uses innuendo to imply he knows about the incestuous
relationship, and this leads the audience to believe other people
know as well...but probably only people like Varys (who is absolutely
amazing on the show!) or other high born people with good ears, and
not that its talked openly in the streets. Again, the world is
shrinking and really narrows down to the major players, and forgets
that the book includes a lot of the common folk in it.
Then they try to
slaughter all of Robert's baseborn children. The scene in which they
do this is simply amazing. In the book, they mention it, and its the
killing of the beloved prostitutes child that is remembered, but it
doesn't feel like the large campaign that it actually is. The show
really gets across that they are trying to kill all the children.
BUT, in the book, I'm pretty sure it was Cersei who orders it. This
shows Cersei as reactionary, but that she is afraid of the truth
getting out. She also holds a lot of resentment against Robert. But
in the show, they specifically say it was Joffrey who had them
killed. I don't understand Joffrey's motivation for this. Are they
playing that he hates his father? That he knows who his real father
is? Neither I think are true. Announcing it was Joffrey got under
my skin a bit.
Theon
I
hate Theon, so much. I believe every scene with Theon, I yelled
“Fuck you, Theon!”
But he was played
well. The decapitation was excellently written, but the show really
drove that home. Its cringe worthy for sure; maybe a muttering of
“oh god” escaped audience members lips.
His character
seemed pretty similar to the book. There was a bit more mention of
The Drowned God in the book, and that he isn't a true believer
causing dissidence between him and his iron men. He also tried
getting a bit more intimate with his sister, making the scene where
he realizes she's his sister a bit more awkward.
I felt like the
show tried to make him less of an asshole though. In the book, he is
extremely ambitious, and talking about how he's going to become king.
It's his plan to capture Winterfell. The show has it be one of his
men, a character who takes the place of Reek but isn't Reek. This
change makes Theon less ambitious, and thus less cruel in his
actions. In the book and show, he does repeatedly mention that he's
been backed into a corner, and all his decisions he was forced into
making. I appreciate that the show added the scene of his sister
talking to her brother, and giving him the option out as opposed to
him being forced to make his decisions...yet at the same time it made
him somewhat human. Which is cool from the aspect that it means
there are all sorts of victims, but from the aspect of I FUCKING HATE
YOU, THEON GREYJOY!, I was less pleased.
I really enjoyed
his finale in the show. His great speech before his men turn on him
is just amazing. In the book, he sends Reek out to get a bunch of
soldiers to take out the army surrounding the castle. When Reek
returns, saving the day, Reek demands some woman. Some woman I don't
remember being important or barely mentioned, and when Theon refuses
Reek decides to burn the city down. In the book, yeah I cheered
because Theon gets smacked down, but at the same time it didn't make
much sense to me other than to show that there are a lot of cruel
people in war, and perhaps some people want to climb the ladder. In
the show though, Robb mentions that Theon will be put to the sword,
but the other Ironmen will be let go if they leave, and there is
mention that the iron men would jump on that. So, when they turn on
Theon, its not a random WTF moment, but actually somewhat expected.
The surprising part is that you think Theon might actually be turning
them around!
Jon Snow
There
were lots of minor tweaks with Jon Snow's character. Some of it was
good, some of it was bad. His character kills a lot of time. There
is a lot of sitting around, a lot of waiting, a lot of Mormont and
the crew speculating about the possible number of Mance Rayder's men
and what might happen when they finally encounter them. It was a fun
read, but...visually watching hours of Jon Snow staring at a map
would only be exciting because Jon Snow is so dreamy.
One
minor change that needs to be mentioned is that in the book, it is
Jon Snow who discovers the obsidian, or Dragon Glass, weapons. Among
their finds are three daggers. One goes to Jon Snow, one to Mormont,
and Tarly takes the third. I'm not sure if Jon Snow needs the dagger
in the book, and if he does, its an easy work around. But, I felt it
was important to his character that he's the one that finds it, and
that he chooses who gets the dagger.
Just
like I find it important to his character that in the book, he
doesn't volunteer to go with Qhorin Halfhand, he's chosen to go.
It's important because he's grown up some, and he's willing to stay
where he's needed. He realizes war and battle aren't just about
being the heroic ranger, but about the stratagem and that people do
what is needed. It also shows that many people are noticing his
skills. Again, this isn't a terrible change at all...just a minor
tweak of the character.
What
I was afraid would be horrible is how they did Jon's capturing of
Ygritte. In the book, he just lets her go and rejoins Qhorin. They
later get ambushed by a group, and are held up in a cave. Here,
Qhorin details that he wants Jon to fight him and join the wildlings
so Jon can spy on the wildlings from the inside, and find out what
they are looking for. The show never has that, and for awhile I was
afraid they were going to make it that Jon switched sides because he
was persuaded to their side. Qhorin still tells Jon to join, but in
one quick line that was easily missed. Before shoving Jon down a
hill, Qhorin whispers “One of us on the inside is worth a thousand
on the outside.” If you missed that line, damn did that battle
seem random! But its all planned to get Jon inside with the
wildlings and spy on them. In the book, he needs to find out what
Mance Rayder is digging for … but in the show, there is no mention
of digging or artifact searching. So far in the third book this
sounds like an unimportant detail.
But
there's a very important reason Jon Snow is chosen to go on the
hunting party, a reason why Qhorin wants Jon as the spy, and a reason
Jon Snow survives: his direwolf, Snow. Is Snow even in the show? He
feeds Jon Snow, he helps Jon defeat Qhorin, and more importantly...
Jon is showing similar abilities as his brother Brann, and the reason
Qhorin knows he needs a spy is because Jon sees through the eyes of
his Direwolf. It's also a reason the wildlings, and specifically
Mance Rayder, are interested in him switching to their side. But the
direwolf that gets the most attention in the show is Robb's, the
character not in the book.
Bran
No seriously,
where the fuck are the dire wolves? Bran's story is COMPLETELY
different without the direwolf.
In the book,
Bran's entire story is that Bran can become his wolf. I don't mean
shape change, I mean he goes unconscious as Bran, and wakes up as the
wolf. The show has a line or two about Bran's dreams, but nothing
else. To learn about his abilities and gain control of them, two
very important characters are given to him, and two of my personal
favorite characters (outside of Tyrion and Arya), the Reed sibling,
Meera and Jojen. Now, in the book this is a very tedious process.
First Bran is refusing to admit his dreams happen, then he's to admit
they mean anything and that he doesn't want them if they do, and then
“ok, maybe its happening...but its not what you think,” until he
finally accepts that he becomes the wolf, and now he just wants to be
the wolf and not be himself anymore, and yadayadayada training to
become a warg (a person who can become animals). It's really long
and repetitive, but at the same time awesome. I obviously didn't
expect the show to annoy us with each episode Brann learning
something about what he can, but I did expect them to include that
Bran can become his wolf, and the Frog Eaters.
I also wonder how
this is going to affect season 3. Bran and Rickon decide to split
up, with Osha taking Rickon, while the Reeds and Hordor decide to go
North to talk to people more adept at being Wargs. So what, is Bran
going to go alone with Hordor and Osha take Rickon herself? Well
that just seems unconventional, and really boring for Bran. Maybe
they won't split up? Well that will really change some major plot
points in 3. Maybe they'll finally introduce the Reeds? If they
decide that, why weren't they just in this season, damn it!
Bran's story
greatly changed from the book, and over-all I am displeased with
that. Yeah, I'm glad it didn't have hours to get a single point
across, but in doing so they dropped something rather pertinent to
the book and the future books.
Daenerys
There is one huge
change about Daenarys' storyline: her dragons don't get captured in
the book. In the book, they constantly talk about it, its a constant
fear, and multiple people obviously desire to steal them...but they
never get stolen in the book. Daenarys' goes to the tower to get
answers to mysterious questions.
I liked that her
dragons got stolen. First, it more than covers the idea of how
precious her dragons are. For me, the conversation with the warlock
in the tower does a much better job of detailing how important the
dragons are than the books repeated mentions of people trying to buy
the dragons with money. Money only means so much, having people
steal them presses how important the dragons are. We also only know
that people want dragons because they are rare and strong, but they
can be killed and aren't god like creatures. Adding in that dragons
are also the reason magic is returning into the world, and a source
of magic, adds a lot to why they are so important.
For the most
part, I also preferred how Daenarys interacted with the tower than
she did in the book. In the book, I felt the scenes provided for her
were rather uninteresting, but in the show... she was obviously being
tempted. The scene came off a lot better for me visually than it did
reading it...I actually kind of got bored through part of it, but I
was super interested in seeing it. I am upset though that Daenerys
didn't walk away from a burning and crumbling tower with her dragons,
but again, that's flavor.
Aren't the
dragons supposed to be the size of dogs by now, though? There size
is going to become important shortly.
Her story is the
only one I know that doesn't actually finish. Book 2 actually ends
with an assassination attempt on her, an introduction of two
characters who become her body guards, and the purchase of the ships.
I believe this was left out for financial reasons of having to pay a
character for a season when they are on screen for not even 10
minutes of show time. I hope it isn't because they are removed, as
they have are already done a lot in book 3.
Tyrion
What's
he building in there? Oh...wait, that didn't happen in the show?
One
of my favorite parts of book 2 is that from the very beginning,
Tyrion stops all production in the city to start building something.
But what? What isTyrion building? It's mentioned nearly every
chapter. Guessing what he's building was fun (I got it rather
early). Not including this big question made that storyline less
fun, but also it reduces how intelligent Tyrion is. He knows, from
day one of coming to King's Landing, how Stannis is going to attack,
and he knows what's he going to do to stop that. In the show, he
hasn't even planned to use the Alchemist's wildfire until basically
the day before they get attacked. Early in the show he calls the
wildfire “pig shit,” and the day before Stannis attacks he says
the line “what are we going to do, throw pig shit at them?” OHHH
that's clever! I wouldn't of made this connection if it weren't for
the “previously” on part of the episode. The show still has
Tyrion as a very clever man, but he's a genius in the book. There's
a few other small changes where Tyrion in the book is so much more
clever than Tyrion in the show.
But
still, he appears quite damn clever in the show. The empty boat of
Wildfire shows hes a quick thinker, and that scene is incredibly well
done. Him leading the men through underground tunnels (I don't
remember those tunnels in the book, or maybe it was just a side
mention) is again him quick on his feet. Yes, we lose that he's 10
steps ahead of everyone else, but instead we get a much faster
reacting Tyrion, and either way, we know he's intelligent and able to
adapt.
We
lose quite a few characters with him, one being Chataya and her whore
house. Shae starts with staying hidden in some house that Chataya
guards, and then she becomes the handmaiden of some boring character
that cries the entire, before finally becoming Sansa's hand maiden.
A lot of this movement was worthless, but Chataya was important for
one of the last scenes Tyrion and Cersei shows. The reason Cersei
has Chataya in the book is because she's been stalking Tyrion, and
think Chataya is Tyrion's whore. I don't know where or why Cersei
grabs the prostitute that Joffrey severely beat in the show. Still,
Peter Dinklage did an amazing job in that scene, and we get that key
point of it... Cersei is an evil bitch, and Tyrion is actually a good
person.
Arya Stark
Finally,
my favorite character.
A
lot changed in her story, but mostly for the better. In the book,
she gets captured by The Mountain and brought on over to Harrenhal
and a very cruel master. She's there for awhile doing various shitty
jobs and trying not to get tortured. And then it switches hands, and
Tywin's there, and her jobs and duties change. And then Tywin's not
there, and it changes hands. And then, she leads an amazing attack
and captures the city, only to be held captive by Roose Bolton (who I
really really wanted to see in the show because I really want to see
how that creepy bastard is portrayed). Yes, its interesting that she
keeps getting switched around...but its not necessary. It doesn't
change her or her character or who she is, nor the point of her
character. It's mostly fluff, so, much like Shae switching hands
multiple times, lets just go put her where its important.
Part
of her character they did change was that she was much more murderous
in the book. When she runs into The Mountain's men, she makes an
attack plan to free the people and kill everyone. Unfortunately,
Gendry makes a lot of noise and gets captured. When she gives Jaqen
his own name, she and him attack and free a bunch of prisoners to
take over Harrenhal. And when she escapes Harrenhal, its her who
kills a guard on her way out so the three of them can escape. The
book, she appears brave because she kills people. In the show, they
remove all that...and make her braver. She is Tywin Lannister's
servant. The man who spends each and every day planning on how to
kill her family. Yeah, and she's lying to his face about who she is
day in and day out. She is collecting information on him and their
plans, and she escapes not because she's afraid of her situation, but
because she's going to confront the situation! It's a different type
of bravery, and in ways a bit more important. We do lose the sense
that she is great with a sword, but I'm sure that can easily be
remedied.
I
liked how the show also did her “prayers.” Her remembering who
she has to kill to get revenge. In the book, this occurs with a lot
of inner dialogue. Inner dialogue is bad for a show though, and
while there were lots of ways she could have explained how she came
upon her nightly death wishes, having someone else tell her to take
it up was beautiful.
I do
have one major concern. In the book, her and Jaqen free prisoners
and take over Harrenhal. Roose Bolton becomes in charge, and thus
the castle is technically held by Robb Stark. As we saw at the end,
Littlefinger was gifted Harrenhal by the Lannisters. It's important
that the Lannister's don't hold the castle, because its him planning
ahead, it also shows a lot about the Lannisters. More importantly to
me though...I don't want the show to forget the politics going on. I
love shows that include the politics of the world. So far what I've
read in the third book, there is a constant note that Harrenhal is
not controlled by the Lannister, so it continues to be an important
part.
...I
also really wanted to see Jaqen and Arya slaughter a group of guards
together...
Marshmallows
are fluff. They are tasty, but they provide nothing to a meal, and
too much is going to make you sick. The books had a lot of fluff
through them. Many characters were repeatedly doing the same thing.
Sometimes this was used to display the difficulty of an action,
reinforce a character trait, and other times I think it was just
there to be flavorful but not do anything for the story or character.
What's
important is who the characters are and what is happening, the actual
meal. For the most part, the changes made kept the character the
same or similar. Arya is still brave, Tyrion is still intelligent,
and Joffrey is still a horrendous human being. Over-all, how the
show showed these traits I feel will stick with me longer while
taking a lot less time to get across the point. Bran is the only
character change I don't like.
The
world did feel smaller in the show. There is less distance between
things, less of the people, and less history. But most of these
things just further reinforced something we already knew. We don't
need to know about the war against The Mad King to know Joffrey is a
horrible ruler, to know that Jaime is a great knight, nor to know
that Ned Stark was an honorable man. We never got Sandor Clegane's
flashback of his face burning, but having a close up of the burned
side of his face while he stares at the fire gets across the exact
same point: The Hound was scarred by fire, both physically and
psychologically. To continue the food metaphor, it was just extra
seasoning on an already seasoned steak... and sometimes we don't need
extra salt.
And
we can't forget that seeing it adds its own flavor, and it might
stick with us longer. I still have a better memory of seeing Ned
Stark's head rolling than I do reading it happening; and I'm sure the
same will be true of seeing Theon's attempt as opposed to reading
about it.
I
have a lot of worries about Season 3. There are some important
factors that were dropped that play an important part in book 3.
Sansa and Ser Dontos, who controls Harrenhal, the dragonglass
daggers, and Bran's storyline. Some of these changes can be quickly
done with a single line, but others are going to need some time put
into them...and its possible that will create a snowball into an
avalanche for Book 4. I haven't read that far though, and who
knows...perhaps Bran is going to die halfways through book 3, and the
Reeds existing just means two more children die.
